Nantoka Naru
by Sora no Hoshi
Summary: Character DEATH. “Things will work out” was his motto, but was thrown out the door when HE came back. But the older shaman only remembers three things: his family, his shamanic abilities, and his loneliness.
1. Prologue

Summary: **AU, Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Hey, everyone, I just want to point out a few things. I have not watch the anime for Shaman King, and can only slightly guess at the ending due to the other fics I've read, but I am kind of basing the story on the ending of the anime series, despite the AUness, since I didn't like the confusion that the manga ending caused me. I will also be killing off quite a few characters, but please don't kill me.

Blah blah narration

"Blah blah" dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _ thoughts

**Nantoka Naru**

Prologue

The night was silent and dark, and no light shone, save for the moon and the twinkles that surrounded the glowing orb. There is no sign of life, with the exception of a few trees, grass that peeked out from the crevices of the rocky ground, and a single body lying in the middle of the near-barren land.

The limp figure opened his eyes and stared into at the starry night sky. He blinked. Once. Twice.

He stayed there for a while, just lying there, when he flinched and instantly held a fingerless gloved hand to the side of his head as pain shot through it.

The figure sat up after much effort, only to cringe at the pain it caused him. He looked down at his chest and saw a long cut down his middle. The wound had stopped bleeding but the cut is still there, awaiting recovery.

He calmed from the pain after a while and looked at his surroundings. It was darkness all over. He can dimly make of the shape of a boulder to his left, and a barren land with few trees to his right.

Instinctively, he called out his spirit, which illuminated the place with an eerie glow.

He got a good look at where he was, now that light shines on the place. There are no human civilizations in sight, and he surprised himself as he gave a sigh of relief when he sees that the land is not 'tainted', but still full of nature.

_Where am I? **Who** am I?_

He silently asked himself the questions that he cannot answer. He thought hard about his name, and one came to his mind, though he knows that the name isn't his, or at least not what he calls himself.

_A—…A—k—…Asak—…Asakura…!_

It was weird. A feeling of anger flowed through him at the name. It is the name of his family, he realized. He doesn't know how he knows, or why he is angry at them. Then another feeling, this time a bittersweet one, surged through him as he thought of one of the Asakuras, very close to him but he couldn't quite place who.

He cringed as another gush of pain jolted through him, reminding him of the bruises and scratches he have that probably resulted from him falling to the ground, as well as the occasional large pebbles blown by the heated wind in the barren land that just happen to land a blow on his motionless body while he's unconscious.

_What had happened?_ Another self-asked question that he cannot answer.

When pain slowly subsided, he looked to his source of light, and stared in astonishment at the awesome creature that stood tall before him, the flaming body glowing of red and orange.

_The…Spirit…of Fire…_

The creature's familiar name slowly appears into his mind.

_A spirit…shaman…I am a shaman…_

Another piece of the puzzle called his memory fitted into place, and he felt a feeling of pride at that. He was, no, _is_, a powerful shaman, and he knows it. Then confusion overtook him.

_If I am so powerful, why haven't I killed the Asakuras that angered me so much? **Why **do they anger me?_

He realized that he dislikes, instead of love, his family, and a feeling of loneliness flooded through him.

_That's right. I have no one._

He held onto a jutting edge in the boulder with his gloved left hand, and used it as a support to stand up.

_They tried to kill me. I have no one. Everyone left me, including Op—. Hmm? Op—? Opa—? O…_

Another splitting headache made him stop thinking about the person he forgot. He thought about the Asakuras, and his eyes turned cold as anger overcame him once again.

"Spirit of Fire." He voiced the familiar name, and the giant spirit responded with a half nod as it looks down at its master. The Spirit of Fire reached out a clawed hand out of its master's will.

Hao silently and calmly stepped onto the offered hand and willed the spirit to take flight. There's only one thing to do now. He has to do what the former him didn't: get rid of the family that caused his loneliness and anger.

_To Japan…_

To be continued…

* * *

A/N: So, what do everyone think about this? I know this is a short chapter but hey, this is only the prologue. This is my first shot at a fanfic so please don't flame too badly. 

I am not the type to add overly complicated Japanese into the story since not everyone know them but if I decided to add some, the meaning will be at the end of the chapters. Sorry if I get the meaning wrong to the people that knows them.

Yes I am evil this way but Yoh will be pretty damaged mentally in the fic, and maybe a bit of OOCness. This fic will not be Hao-centric.

I need to clarify a few things:

My idea of the ending for Shaman King anime is that(don't laugh out loud) Hao fell off of Spirit of Fire, which simply dissipated into wherever spirits go when they're not being used, after Yoh's last attack, hitting the ground head first, thus resulting the bruises, as well as the memory loss. Also, Opacho left him before he after he took Yoh's soul. As off as that sounds, this is AU and purely my imagination. From what I know, the Shaman Fight was postponed, but I decided that it won't be a big part of the story.

As aforementioned, I _will_ be killing off quite a few characters, and I want to know everyone's opinion on who they don't want killed off. But if it is an Asakura or related to the family, most likely s/he will be killed by Hao, since he's my favorite character and the bad family who was mean to him can die.

**The possible ones that I will kill if no objection are**: Anna and Tamao (since they are related to the family), Ryu (since I'm gonna make it so that he was with Tamao when she confronted Hao), Youmei, Keiko, Kino, Mikihisa, and Unknown relatives of the Asakura family.

I'm not sure if I want to kill Anna since I'm debating with myself on that. I mean, Yoh is with her. I'll keep her alive if people beg for it. I've decided, though, that I _will_ kill Tamao and Ryu. There's also a big possibility that I will kill Chocolove, just to put him in the story, since I don't know his character that well, except for his bad sense of humor.

**The ones I won't kill in my current plot but might kill if too many object to any of the people above**: Ren, horo, and Lyserg (three whom I assume no one wants to see dead), Chocolove (who probably won't even come in the story except death if chosen), Marco, Jeanne, Manta, Pilica, and more unknown relatives of the Asakura family (hey, **some** Asakuras have to die).

Please tell me who you don't want to die and who should replace him/her.

If the opinions are too widespread, I will just go with the original plan.

The X-Laws will not be including in the story, nor Hao's followers. They might come with in a side story, but I don't think it'll fit into the plot, what's with his memory loss and all. I might be able to squeeze Jeanne and Marco's death in the plot if they are chosen.

**Coming up next**: Living the Carefree Life

"You're an Asakura, aren't you?"—— "Hao! What are you doing here? I thought, no, I _know_ you're dead…"——"When you say 'Hao', do you mean me?"

I want to hear everyone's opinions. I will continue anyways but please REVIEW!


	2. Living the Carefree Life

Welcome everyone to the first chapter of the Nantoka Naru! I will be responding to reviews, if any, at the end of the fic. I'm sorry if some characters are OOC(Out Of Character for those who don't know, not trying to make anyone look stupid), but I'm not that great at grasping characteristics.

Note that one year has now passed since the prologue.

**I dedicate this chapter to Lost To Reality for being my first and only reviewer! (kudos to you!)**

Summary: **AU, Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah narration

"Blah blah" dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _thoughts

**Nantoka Naru**

Chapter One: Living the Carefree Life

Yoh sat under a tree in the cemetery, enjoying the floating clouds overhead. It's been a year since the incident in the Shaman Fight, and the feeling of regret still nagged at him for killing Hao, his older twin brother, even though it had to be done. But apart from that and Anna's insistence to continue his training, Yoh is pretty content with his resumed carefree life.

"Yoh-dono!" the dark-haired boy turned to see a transparent samurai coming his way, and flashed him one of his lazy smiles. "Hey Amidamaru, what's up?" He asked as the spirit approached.

"Anna-dono has ordered me to relate you this message as it was said: 'Yoh, get your butt to the convenient store right NOW. Buy a carton of milk and two cases of eggs and return before five or the training triples for the next month!'" Amidamaru finished.

Yoh frowned at the threatening message from his fiancée. "What time is it, Amidamaru?"

Amidamaru thought a while. "It was four-thirty when I left, Yoh-dono."

"Oh noes..." Yoh hurriedly got up and starts running in the direction of the store. "If I don't hurry, I'll experience the next ten levels of hell for a whole month!"

Amidamaru follow his master's wild run for his dear life and chuckled inwardly. _Yoh-dono had been sad about Hao's death, and it's good that Anna-dono is keeping him busy and taking his mind off of things._

* * *

"Yoh-kun!" The familiar voice of Oyamada Manta sounded as Yoh was on his mad dash back to the Funbari Onsens after buying what he was told to.

Yoh flashed a grin at his best friend. "Hey Manta!" and kept dashing before rushing on. Amidamaru stayed behind to chat with Manta.

"What's up with him, Amidamaru?" Manta asked in confusion. "Is he doing Anna-san's training again?"

"Ah, it would seem so, but it is not so." Amidamaru answered. "Yoh-dono is, in fact, doing the shopping for Anna-dono that she had _requested_ to be done before five, or else his training will be tripled for the next month if he does not complete the task before the allotted time." He explained to the short boy.

Manta sweatdropped. "I see… no wonder he's in a hurry." Then realization dawned on him. "But Amidamaru, it's already seven after five!"

The ghost looked at the small boy in a mock frown. "I guess Yoh-dono is going to experience the next ten levels of hell for a whole month then." He quoted his master.

* * *

Yoh returned to the inn to an angry fiancée. Anna is waiting by the counter, arms folded and right foot tapping, staring as Yoh entered. "You're late." She said two simple words that shouted 'DOOM' at Yoh.

"Ahahaha…." Yoh's bitter laugh drifted off as she saw Anna's face. "Sorry?" He tried.

"Sorry isn't going to cut it, Yoh. Your training will be four times the usual for the next month." She declared icily.

"Four!" Yoh exclaimed. "Amidamaru told me it was three!"

"I changed my mind." Replied the itako.

"But Anna…" Yoh whined.

"Five." She said simply. That immediately shut him up.

Anna pointed to the inn's kitchen. "Now go make dinner."

"Yes Anna…" Yoh trudged off grunting.

Anna raised an eyebrow. "You want to make it six?"

Yoh ran off to the kitchen hurriedly. "I mean, yes Anna-sama, the Oh so Beautiful Queen! It'd be my pleasure to serve you dinner." He especially emphasized 'beautiful' and 'queen'.

"That's better." Anna goes toward the living room to watch TV, ignoring the samurai spirit that just arrived in time to hear Anna say "Five."

"Poor Yoh-dono…" Amidamaru sighed.

* * *

The next day, in class, Manta entered and saw his friend collapsed on his on desk. It is normal for Yoh to sleep in class, but he's practically sprawled over the desk in exhaustion.

"Hey, Yoh-kun, so did you make it back in time?" Manta asked as he sat down in his desk next to his best friend.

Yoh lifted a tired head. "No, and on top of that, Anna increased it to five times, so I had to woke up earlier today and run two hundred and fifty kilometers." He slumped back down after that.

Manta sweatdropped. "Well, good thing it's Friday and there's no school tomorrow." He said sympathetically. Then he suddenly remember something. "Oh, and by the way, I'll be there tomorrow."

Yoh raised his exhausted head again. "Tomorrow?" He asked.

Manta shakes his head. "Yoh-kun, don't tell me you forgot. It's our monthly reunion at the Funbari Onsens, remember? Ren and Jun are coming over from China, Horo and Pilika from Hokkaido, Lyserg from London, Chocolove from New York, Faust and Eliza from wherever they had traveled to and Tamao from Izumo with Ryu whom had stalked her there."

Yoh's eyes widened. "Oh yeah, I completely forgot since I'm so tired from Anna's extreme training program. I wonder if Anna forgot too. I'll remind her later, during lunch or after the training, if I ever get done." After that, Yoh flopped back down on his desk and within five seconds, manta can hear his soft snoring, indicating his dormant mode.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the wilderness of Hokkaido…

Tamao and Ryu walks away from the forest and towards the bus stop, more than half and hour's walk away, that will take them to the train station. They had just visited Horo and talked about how the reunion would be.

"I'm sure the reunion would be fun. Don't you think, Ryu-san?" Tamao asked the tall gang leader happily.

Ryu stared like a lovesick fool at the girl's smile, Tokageroh floating nonchalantly beside him. "With you there, it'll be as fun as it can be my cute Tamao-chan."

Tamao laughed bitterly at the statement and quickly continued the subject before it got off topic. "Horo-kun and Pilika-chan sure seemed excited about it. Horo-kun kept saying how he'll fight Ren-kun and Yoh-sama to let them see how much he improved."

The tall man tilted his head upward smugly. "Well, no matter how much better they get, I will always be better. I'm even better than danna. I'll show you my awesome skills when we arrive at Funbari Onsens."

The pink-haired shaman chuckled at her boastful friend. "Sounds like it'll be a lot of fun. I can't wait for it either."

Ryu looked up at the night sky. "Ah, it's so good that the Shaman Tournament is over. We can all resume a peaceful time and go back to living the carefree life." The shy girl nodded in agreement, and then looked up curiously at her gang leader friend when he stopped.

"Ryu-san, what—"she was cut off when she saw his stare and she stared in the direction that Ryu is facing. There, sitting cross-legged on the bench that people sit in to wait for the bus, is an all too familiar face of a fifteen, now sixteen-year-old boy looking upward, gazing at the stars. The wind lifting his long, dark-colored hair into a dance, his poncho flapping to the rhythm.

(A/N: I actually felt like this is a good place to end it, but it's too short! It's only a bit more than 1000 words, and I usually want my chapters to be at least 2000 words.)

* * *

Hao took a whole year staying in the barren terrain that he woke up at in order to let himself heal completely. However, not remembering anything, Hao had actually not known where to start looking for the Asakuras. He only know that he had to go to Japan because Asakura is a Japanese last name. While contemplating this on the Spirit of Fire as they flew over the sea, the seemingly young shaman looks at the sky, admiring the twinkles that illuminate the dark sky.

_Well,_ he thought in a seemingly logical way, _if I'm going to start anywhere, why not decide a starting point?_ He eyed two small ships in the distance and fired two fireballs at the same time toward both. They hit on directly and Hao watched as the right one sank completely while the left one is still in the process of going down. _North it is then._ He then mentally gave his spirit an order to go northward. North to South, he's bound to come across _someone_ from the family. (A/N: Did I mention _seemingly_ logical?)

They landed in Hokkaido, far away from a city, on a deserted roadway. He can't attract too much attention if he's going to look for someone. He sent Spirit of Fire away and slowly walked toward the direction that he thinks might lead to a city, where he hopefully will find an Asakura. He is reluctant to enter the city full of people, and he doesn't know why; but he knows that if he wants to find those from his family, they won't be found wondering in the middle of nowhere.

It was a clear night, and the stars are really nice. Hao found himself having an affinity for these twinkling things, and decided that he would watch them for a while before going on to find a city. After all, he has plenty of time.

He quickly found a bench to the side of the road that he was following. Not bothering to care why there's a bench in the middle of nowhere, he sat down in it, crossed his legs, and looked up admiringly at the celestial beings.

A gust of wind came by as he admired the blinking lights in the night sky. The stars seem so alive as they twinkle and shine in the sky. The onmyouji feels that the bright beings are accompanying his lonely soul. They make him feel less lonely then he really is.

The thousand-year-old shaman was so intent at stargazing, that he did not even notice the two unfamiliar voices approaching and the sudden stop in footsteps and voices as they neared the bench he was sitting in.

* * *

"HAO!" The furious howl woke the long-haired shaman from his dream-like state.

_Hao? That name sounded familiar…_

He looked around to see who the name belonged to and, finding no one, he looked toward the source of the voice, a tall man with most of his hair jutting out toward the front wearing really bad-fashioned clothing, in the onmyouji's opinion, at least.

The man is holding a bokuto, a.k.a. a wooden sword, now raised in anticipation, and accompanied by a pink-haired girl. Hao's eyes widened at the sight of the girl. He felt an unknown rage build up inside him, a rage he is now familiar with every time he thinks about who he's looking for. Instead of responding to the accusing yell, he answered with a question.

"You're an Asakura, aren't you?" he asked the girl.

Now it's the girl's turn to widen her eyes, the question catching her off guard. "N-No…I'm just a shaman apprentice that had lived with them since I was four. I'm just their friends."

Living with them since four is the same as being part of the family. _Okay, so I **can **find an Asakura in the middle of nowhere. _At the mention of 'friends', anger flooded into Hao's eyes, but before he could say anything else, The tall man cuts in.

"Hao! What are you doing here? I thought, no, I _know_ you're dead. We all saw you fade in that deadly explosion!" He exclaimed in anger.

Now Hao just looks confused, and when he talked, he surprised the both of them.

"When you say 'Hao', do you mean me?" He indicated himself with his right index finger.

* * *

When their enemy said that, Ryu doesn't know whether to feel surprised, angered, sarcastic, or confused. Surprised because Hao is denying his own identity, angered because he is playing dumb, sarcastic because there is no one else here, and confused because there was no reason for him to ask that question. He soon decided for it to be all of the above.

"No duh it's you, you devil. Who else?" Ryu can tell that Tamao is afraid, and walks a few steps forward.

He inwardly cringed at the word 'devil', but did not show it. "So my name's Hao?" The shaman asked, and the two friends looked at him like he's psycho, which is probably exactly what they were thinking at the time.

Ryu decides to make his way around it. "Why did you say that Tamao-chan is an Asakura, Hao?"

On hearing that, the confused expression turned to that of anger as the shaman made Spirit of Fire appear. "Because seeing her made me angry," a ball of fire appeared floating above his open palm, "and I only get that fury when I thought of the Asakuras. Now that she had clarified her identity, I will kill her."

He threw the ball at the shocked girl, and she blocked her face awaiting the burning impact. Her spirits, Ponchi and Conchi, had been left at home by her, since they are too annoying and she finds it impolite to bring those rude spirits while visiting others. She still, however, took her little bag, slang across his right shoulder and resting at her left hip, everywhere she went, out of habit. When she felt none of the anticipated burn of the fire, she opened her eyes to find that Ryu had knocked it away with his oversoul.

"Chicchiena." Hao said coldly, and with malice mentally ordered Spirit of Fire to smack him away, which the obedient spirit did. Ryu skidded a few feet, then stopped, lying on his side.

"Ryu-san!" Tamao exclaimed, then noticed that the attention's now on her. The shivering girl stood there, mind filled with fear and worry for her friend. Hao made another fire ball appear and shot it at the trembling young shaman.

_This is really the end…_Tamao closed her eyes. She doesn't want to see her doom coming at her. Again, she did not feel the blow, and risked opening one eye, and gasped as she opened both.

Ryu's oversoul is now a lot smaller than it was before, due to over exertion of energy in order to get to Tamao on time. He gave a weak but reassuring smile to Tamao. "Don't worry, Tamao-chan, I won't let that lame-excuse-for-a-God hurt you." He turned back, concentrating on the fire-using shaman. "But we have got to get to Izumo and Funbari Hill to warn the others, since he is after the Asakuras."

Tamao only nodded shakily as Hao took a few steps closer. She trembled in fear at the look of extreme, not hatred, but rage in the elder Asakura twin's eyes.

"You are not an Asakura, so if you had not interfered, I would not have bothered. But the girl is obviously like a part of the family now, and that I cannot forgive. So if you insist on protecting her with your insignificant furyoku, you two can die together." Hao said, and as he 'teleported' behind them, and inflamed them instantly, before they even had a chance to turn.

As the burning flame shot through her, Tamao cried when she saw her friend in flames. "Ryu-san, I'm sorry, it's all my fault…" She yelled, hoping her friend would hear her.

The silhouette of the gang leader smiled back at her. "It wasn't your fault, Tamao-chan; it was Hao's. Now smile that cute smile. My only regret is that I couldn't save you." The flames suddenly got larger as Ryu finished. They both felt their lives slipping away.

Tamao offered her dying friend a weak smile and closed her eyes in sadness as she grew tired.

"Kino-obaasan, Youmei-ojiisan, I'm sorry I couldn't warn you about him…" The pink-haired girl's whisper faded as she is no longer living. The flames disappeared as two scorched bodies are left. Not one feature of the two are left identifiable, except the faint tinge of pink in the smaller body, and the badly scorched clothing style and the abnormal hairdo of the tall one.

_I have to tell everyone at Izumo to watch out for Hao…_

The murderous shaman picked up this stray thought that emitted from the shaman apprentice before her death. The words seem to come into his mind, but the elder Asakura twin didn't understand that, and just shrugged it off as a light whisper.

Hao wondered why the girl would tell him where the Asakuras are when she's clearly worried about them. He nonchalantly erased them from existence, and the foolish man's spirit as well; he cannot have these pests' soul flying to warn the others, after all.

Hao cast one last look at the two before turning around and going back onto the Spirit of Fire. He had a strange urge to just go up to the city that he had intended to go and burn it to the ground; but he has a more important matter at hand.

"Izumo, eh…?" Southward it is.

* * *

The same day, near midnight, in the forest of Hokkaido…

Horo woke to the loud voice of his sister.

"Onii-chan, wake up!" Pilika yelled in an exasperated voice. Horo sleepily sat up. "Gosh, Pilika, you don't have to be _that_ excited. It's not like the reunion party will be cancelled if we don't arrive one day early…" He was cut off by Pilika.

"No! Not that! This!" The blue-haired girl shoved a large piece of burnt cloth into her brother's hand; it is white on one side and purple on the other.

Horo looked up nonchalantly. "So?"

Pilika stamps irritatingly on the ground. "Don't you recognize that? It was burnt by a mysterious fire."

"Baka Pilika, people die of mysterious fire all the time. You don't have to relate every mysterious fire with _Him_. We all know he's dead." Horo is getting annoyed at his sister's overreaction.

She smacked him for calling her a baka, and was not any calmer than before. "But that is from Ryu-san's collar!"

Horohoro's eyes widened. "What are you trying to say?"

Her azure orbs grew from irritated to sad, now that it's getting through to her brother. "I went out of the forest to make sure that they didn't miss the last bus, but I saw the bus there, the occupants not present, and they were surrounding _something_. When I went and got a closer look, I saw…I saw two dead, scorched bodies…one of a young pink-haired girl, and one of a tall man in Elvis style." She was near tears. "I managed to get this befor people pushed me away…"

The elder Ainu quickly got dressed as he jumped off the bed. "We have to go check it out, Pilika! Come on!" As much as he hoped that it weren't them, the descriptions are too close for it to be anyone else: _a girl with pink hair and a tall man with an Elvis hairdo and similar fashion-style._

To be continued…

* * *

Chicchiena – "so small", to indicate looking down on, or "pathetic".  
Onii-chan – Big brother; it can also be said as "onii-san", "nii-chan", "aniki", and so on.  
Baka – Stupid; idiot

Review Reply/ies:

**Lost to Reality**: Even though I said that I'll update anyways, you reviewed! I'm so happy :cries tears of joy: You are now offically my favorite user. I will go check out your stories when I get the chance. :glomps:

A/N: There! I killed off two semi-important characters in one chapter. I am so evil. More will come. Next stop: The Asakuras (next stop for Hao, but not in the next chapter)

**Coming up next**: The Long-awaited Reunion  
"Did you get hurt somewhere?"——"Not us."——"Huh?"——"Ryu and Tamao won't be coming…ever again."

I still need to know who wants who to be alive and who to be dead. Still taking opinions, flames, praises, or just babbles. Please REVIEW.


	3. The Long awaited Reunion

THIS IS JUST AN EDITED VERSION OF CHAPTER 2, NOT AN UPDATE! Thanks to 12uly for pointing out my mistake. I also added comments for my other reviewers at the bottom. I'm not sure if there are more mistakes, but I hope not.

Thanks to all the readers that have been reading this fic, reviewed or not. I will try to make the update into at least once a month, if not more. I often have writer's block, and it usually takes a while for inspiration to come to mind, so forgive me for late updates. Anyways, enjoy.

Summary: **AU, Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah narration

"Blah blah" is dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _is thoughts

'_Blah blah' _ is thoughts in dreams

_Narrations in italics_ is in a dream.

**Nantoku Naru**

Chapter Two: The Long-awaited Reunion

It is a special and rare day that day. Special because it's the long-awaited reunion for the crew, and rare because Yoh actually woke up by himself, before Anna storms in and gently(crudely) shakes(beats) him awake with her hands(pans: for hitting).

What's more, Anna had called off his hell-like training, since it is the day of the reunion. Yoh got up and did the usual cooking before his fiancée set him to work cleaning the inn. Training or not, _her_ inn has got to stay clean.

Around mid-morning, Yoh heard knocking on the door as he was finishing the bathroom floor. He hurriedly went to get it, as Anna would tell him to, and opened the door to find Manta, Ren, and Jun standing there, Pailong waiting loyally behind his master, and Bason floating leisurely to the side of his.

"Hey guys! Why'd you come with Manta?" he asked the Chinese shaman and his sister.

"We met along the way," Manta explained, "and decided to come together since we're going in the same direction."

Ren muttered off to the side. "Jun and Manta decided."

Yoh broke into one of his carefree smiles, ignoring Ren's mutters. "Come in!" he stepped aside to let his guests enter, and Ren strode in like he owned the place. "Hmph, still the same as last month, eh?" Ren looked around and turned back to Yoh, still standing by the open door. "Dirty, small, barren, and…" he paused as the three before him gave him a you-are-doomed look. "She's right behind me, isn't she?" They nodded tragically, to his demise.

_SMACK!_ Ren felt the itako's legendary left make contact with his right cheek as the blonde cruelly slapped him, sending him flying. The Chinese shaman fell back through the still-open door, the impact's momentum making him fly far away, until he became a twinkle of star in daylight. Jun chuckled softly at her brother's silly behavior.

"No one insults _my_ inn." Anna clapped her hands clean and turned to Yoh. "You, go make the place cleaner. You didn't clean it enough, and that's why that twit commented on it."

"Hai…" Yoh sighed and trudged off, Manta sweatdropping and Jun giggling softly, amused by the events.

* * *

A green-haired boy walked down the familiar streets of Funbari, Tokyo. He had just left the train station that took him from the air port. A fairy-like spirit flew alongside him, faithfully following her master. 

Suddenly, the young shaman noticed a glint in the corner of his eyes that's _not_ Morphine's , and looked up just in time to see the blur of approaching purple(pointy on one end, no less) before the said object crashed into him, making both fall onto the ground in a painful heap.

The boy dressed in detective-style clothing sat up and rubbed at his throbbing head, hoping to ease the pain a little. He looked up to see who, or what, had crashed into him, and is surprised to see the familiar form of a certain Kwan Dao using shaman. "Nani? Re—Ren-kun?" he asked in astonishment.

A paired of saffron eyes looked up at who's addressing him as he also started massaging his aching head from the impact. "Lyserg?" He asked in a irritated tone. "Why'd you bump into my head?"

Lyserg look astounded at his friend. "Me? But you're the one who flew out of nowhere and crashed into me!" He protested.

Ren stood up and dusted himself off, his green-haired companion doing the same. "For your information, it wasn't out of nowhere. That ab—" he cuts himself off, suddenly looking around, making sure the blonde is not here. "That abusive itako slapped me just because I commented on that rundown inn."

Lyserg laughed a bit at the explanation. "Well, you certainly should've seen that coming. You know that Anna-san can be _a bit_ rough."

Ren blushed in embarrassment at being mocked and growled furiously at his laughing friend. "Urusei ne! How was I supposed to know that she is standing right behind me!"

The green-haired shaman wiped a tear from his eyes. "Ha…sorry, Ren-kun—haha…come on—haha…let's—hahaha….go to the—:cough:…ha….inn then." He managed to choke out between laughs.

"Urgh!" Ren stormed off, resisting his urge to kill his companion on the spot and making a scene in the public. Lyserg laughed for a few moments longer, then followed after his friend once he had calmed.

* * *

When they finally arrived, they find Yoh, Manta, Jun, Faust, Eliza, and Anna outside, having set up a picnic table that is now filled with the many food that they planned to eat during the reunion. 

Yoh, Manta and Faust are talking about the Shaman Fight, and chatting about what each other did afterwards, while Eliza stood calmly aside, listening to the conversation with joy. Anna is sitting at the picnic table reading a book, still silently fuming from Ren's earlier comment. Jun is fussing with the contents on the table, placing one thing here and another thing there, trying to make the display look as perfect as possible for the occasion.

The spirits are off to the side, chatting amiably with each other.

They all turned at the sound of people approaching, and Yoh's smile widened at the sight. "Hey, Lyserg, and welcome back, Ren." Lyserg returned the smile.

"Hello, minna-san." He looked around, "and I thought I was the last one." The absence of five of his friends called to his attention.

Jun stopped messing with the table and approached the group. "Nope. So did you guys run into each other on your way? I was wondering if Ren'll come back after everyone else had arrived." She questioned. Anna glanced up from her book to glower at the Tao's only son. If looks can kill, Ren would've died a hundred times over by then. "One more bad comments from him and he _will_ be coming back after everyone else arrived, or later." Ren scowled at the itako but did not dare to counter her.

"Uh…ehehe…" Lyserg laughed sourly. "We didn't really _run_ into each other; it's more like we bumped into each other—:cough: Renflewintome :cough:" his hand went unconsciously to his head where he was hit as he was reminded.

Ren groaned angrily. "It wasn't my fault. It was that mons….I mean YES! It was, of course, my _entire_ fault." Ren quickly adjusted himself as he feel Anna's death glare on him, his face still stinging from the earlier slap.

"Well," Manta started, quickly changing the subject before the itako's stare massacres Ren on the spot, "we are still missing Horo, Pilika, Chocolove, Ryu, and Tamao, right?"

"Yep," Yoh replied casually. "Maybe we should just start without them." He flashed his innocent smile at the group in mock seriousness.

"We heard that." A familiar but strangely weak voice came from down the path.

"Horo! Pilika!" Yoh exclaimed in joy.

Manta went up to them. "Finally! You guys are really late, you know. It's weird though…I thought Ryu and Tamao would come before you……hey what's wrong?" He asked, seeing their crestfallen expression. They both have bags under their eyes, and Pilika's eyes are red, as if she's just cried.

Lyserg went up to them. "Did something happen?" he asked, worry evident in his tone and the others' expressions.

Faust went up to the group with Eliza pushing him in his wheelchair. "Did you get hurt somewhere?" The doctor asked.

Pilika looked down, her bangs covering her depressed eyes. "Not us."

"Huh?" The Tao siblings asked in unison.

The Ainu boy closed his eyes. "Ryu and Tamao won't be coming…ever again."

The group widened their eyes in surprise at the statement.

* * *

'_Where am I?'_

_The long-haired shaman opened his eyes, finding himself standing in the middle of a large meadow. Wherever he turn, it's grass, grass, and more grass. He then noticed, a little to his left, a good 10 meters away, is a tall oak tree._

'_It must be very old, to grow that big. It's lucky that it can manage to grow that much in such a world.' his thoughts wandered away at the sight of the giant plant that has a trunk as thick as five normal-sized trees bundled together. It is more than 500 feet tall, and its leaves and branches spread a mile outward._

_The millennia-old boy walked in the direction of the tree, quickly finding himself shielded by its shade. As he approached the trunk, he saw the shadow of a figure that resembles his height. The silhouette of the boy facing him, waiting for him to approach._

'_Who is he?' the shaman asked himself, his poncho swaying slightly as he walked faster._

_When he got to the boy, he found a pair of dark-brown eyes exactly like his staring back at him. The person that looks exactly like him, but with shorter hair and orange headphones holding most of his hair back. A relaxed smile was plastered on his face as a familiar feeling of bitter-sweetness returned to the fire-using shaman._

"_Who are you?" he asked. The boy didn't say anything, but just smiled in tranquility and looked at the long-haired boy with brown eyes that matches the other's._

_The not-so-young shaman cannot answer his own questions if the boy doesn't. He has no idea who the boy is._

"_You are the peaceful image of me, the serene form of my identity, the answers to my confusion…I feel sad and happy when I see you, but why is that?"_

_The boy still said nothing, but that carefree smile continued to stay on his face._

"_Aren't you an Asakura? That's why I thought of you when I remember my family name…"_

_He waited, and finally, the boy moved. The short haired image of himself lifted a hand and pointed to his splitting image. The two words he said echoed through the meadow, even though the mass plain seems limitless. "Hao." He said in an innocent voice, then pointed to himself. "Yoh."_

Hao awoken with a start. He didn't have time to ask more questions before the sound of an airplane flew loudly overhead when it passed by closely. He was flying _that_ high on Spirit of Fire. Hao stared after the jet angrily for waking him before shooting some well-aimed and quite-large fireballs at it. The airplane immediately went up in flames and dropped down.

Peace returning once again, Hao can no longer drop back to sleep, all fatigue and feeling of slumber now gone. He looked at his surrounding and realized that it's mid-morning, almost noon already. He wasn't the type to sleep late, but he had wanted to stay in that dream.

"Yoh…" he muttered the name to himself as he remembered the boy.

* * *

The plane is going down at an ungodly speed, inflamed by an unknown fire both on the outside _and_ the inside. Many passengers had already died in flames, only a few left, and they are all on fire. Everything is broken, and the plane plunged toward the sea, while aiming for its destination, an airport in Tokyo. 

There are those moments when a person is in so much panic during a situation, s/he forgets any special abilities that s/he can use to save him/herself. There's a certain African-American boy on this falling plane that is experiencing that exact moment.

Chocolove tried desperately to put out the flame on his arms, ignoring Mic completely as his jaguar spirit whines in worry to his side. But when he did put out the fire, the fire from the person next to him light his legs and side on fire. The person from his other side slumped onto him, lighting his afro and his whole right body on fire as well.

"Damn it!" The comedian felt the burning feeling and struggled to free himself, but to no avail. The tongues of flame wound its way up his body, to his arms, and soon his whole person is on fire too.

"It is like the game of Hot Potato!" Chocolove laughed weakly at the lame joke that came as his last words as the plane exploded when the fire spread to the engines. (A/N: I don't know anything about planes and I don't know what part would explode if lighted, so I went with the engine.)

* * *

"What…?" Manta asked after the long silence that followed as Horo finished telling the last words of the news. Not even the spirits said anything. 

"Tamao and Ryu…?" Jun sat down at the picnic table facing away from it, her knees unable to support her any longer after hearing the tragic news. Pailong stood near her, trying to provide comfort to his master.

Bason voiced his thoughts. "Mysterious fire…"

"Almost sound like Hao…" Lyserg grimaced at the memory of _his_ parents' death.

Ren looked angrily at the siblings. "If this is a joke, it's not funny."

Pilika looked too sad to say anything, so Horo responded. "No joke. We were just as shocked when we went to the scene, and saw that the two blackened bodies _are_ them, there's no doubt about it."

"What makes you so sure?" Faust asked in disbelief, rubbing Eliza's back gently in comfort.

"We were right there, okay! How would you understand to see the unmistakable scorched outline of your friends imprinted on the ground? Even _we _wanted to deny it!" The Ainu boy shouted in desperation at his friend's disbelief, then he calmed and quieted down. "Only Ryu has a hairdo like that, and those old fashioned clothing…" He trailed off, looking down.

"Tamao-chan was carrying her board when she visited, and its remnants are still in the arms of the scorched body...there was also a badly burned bag that was always slung across her shoulder." Pilika choked out before she broke into tears.

Horo patted his sister. "They just visited us, and they were talking about how fun the reunion will be…"

"A mysterious fire…almost sound like Hao…" Lyserg repeated.

Yoh turned to him, finally saying something. "But Hao is dead. He couldn't have survived the explosion that resulted after the last impact I inflicted on him."

"It cannot be Hao…" Anna said thoughtfully. "He would've went and burned you guys, too. He must've know you're there…"

"Then where did the fire come from?" Ren asked, the group finally accepting that two of their friends are dead and moving on to the topic of the fire.

"We don't know, but we can't assume yet." Amidamaru reasoned.

"But…" Manta spoke again, this time in anxiety. "If it _was_ Hao, then he would come for us next, right?" He panicked.

Yoh looked at him, then the rest of the group determinedly. "No. It was _not_ Hao and we won't get killed; not if we stay together. It'll all will work out, guys. Let's just wait for Chocolove to arrive first." He's not smiling, but his words reassured them. "Okay…" they agreed in unison.

"There goes the long-awaited reunion…" Horo voiced quietly, no humor in his tone. The food on the picnic table lay cold and forgotten as they waited.

Of course, Chocolove never arrived.

To be continued…

* * *

Nani – what, used to express in sentences like "what?"  
Urusei – "shut up"  
Minna – everyone; everybody 

A/N: Yay, another chapter done! I killed off another semi-important character but realized that I can do that right after I put the 'Hao burns plane part'. I know the plane's really random but _something_ has to wake him up.

Oh and for those who doesn't get the hot potato thing. It's like the game of hot potato, where one pass to another and that person pass it to another. So Chocolove is making a joke on the people around him passing the fire to him and the 'hot' to indicate the fire. It was a really lame joke, as fitting for Chocolove (but I cannot believe I came up with it!).

By the way, Eliza is revived in this fic. I feel sorry for Faust that he should have a dead lover even after all the work he's been through, so she was revived, whether such a thing is possible or not.

There was some OOCness going on with Ren, Horohoro, and Pilika, but overall I think I grasped the characters pretty well, in my opinion at least. Also, please tell me if I missed any Japanese translations. I go back and reread to check, but I ended up reading my own fanfic and not noticing at all…

Still taking opinions on who should or should not be killed. I decided not to kill Anna since I killed Chocolove. I might leave one of the Asakuras alive to inform Yoh of Hao's return, but on the other hand, I might not. The story right now still have plenty of room for changes.

**Reviewers:**

elana-usui- I'm glad you liked it. Here's the update. Kudos for you.

Leuv- Thanks for appreciating my story. -glomps-

12uly- Thankies for reviewing all my chappies. You deserve a uber glomp. –uber glomps- Actually, all my reviewers deserve uber glomps. –uber glomps all reviewers.

Ayeko- I'm so happy for your support. Sorry for the confusion. Sankyuu for reviewing. XD

sweetsorrowthroughEternity- Super long name that I can pronounce! Yay, thanks for reviewing my story. I love your story too. Especially Take My Hand. Everyone should so go and read that if they don't mind yaoi and twincest.

**Coming up next**: Someone to be Forgotten  
"So what do we do about it?"—— "We go find Hao, and kill him for good."——"We can't do anything about it."——"Let's just forget about Hao for now."

Other than that, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please REVIEW.


	4. Someone to be Forgotten

The story is actually not as angsty as it sounds, and the angst doesn't come until after Yoh's family dies, which occurs _after_ some of his friends had died. I don't know to what level of moping should it be counted as angst, but I'm trying.

Here's the usuals (I mean, I know they're exactly the same since I'm lazy and just copy and paste, so you can skip this part):

Summary: **AU, Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah - narration

"Blah blah" - dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _ - thoughts

'_Blah blah'_ - thoughts in dreams

_Narrations in italics_ - means it's a dream.

**Nantoku Naru**

Chapter Three: Someone to be Forgotten

Yoh lies on his futon, thinking, as the silent night enveloped the inn. After knowing about Tamao and Ryu, they decided to wait for Chocolove. However, the comedian did not show up, and everyone fear that he died, while Yoh tries to assure them that he just couldn't make it because of some last minute reason.

In the afternoon, everyone decided to stay, knowing that they have to stay together in case their friends' murderer shows up. The reunion just ended, everyone bringing in the food in silence, as they ate what was supposed to be their picnic for dinner.

_Hao…_

Yoh thought of his twin brother as he recalled the conversation earlier.

—Flashback—

"So what do we do about it?" Manta, unable to stand the silence, spoke up.

Ren looked down at the short blonde. "We go find Hao, and kill him for good."

Yoh frowned. "It wouldn't be Hao, it couldn't be. He's dead. I…" he paused and took a deep breath. "I killed him. If he's alive all this time then I…" he trailed off.

_Then I wouldn't have to feel guilty for anything, even if it **was** necessary to kill him._

He didn't voice his thought out loud, and no one pressured him to go on.

"_We_ don't do anything. Not until whoever killed them comes to find us." Anna said in a final tone.

Amidamaru nodded in agreement. "Anna-dono is right. We can't do anything about it."

The Chinese spirit spoke up. "If any of us tries to find him/her on our own, we might get killed. Whether Ryu was powerful or not, he is still skillful in shamanism, and shouldn't be killed that easily if the enemy does not prove a threat."

"But what if he was just too busy protecting Tamao-chan?" Pilika voiced her concern.

"Tamao is a shaman too, albeit a gentle one." Faust reasoned.

His wife continued for him. "If truly the enemy was weak enough that Ryu can take on him/her, then Tamao should be able to defend herself, and maybe even help." Eliza turned to Pilika as well, aiding her lover. "She must've been afraid or some restrain was put on her, which only result in one conclusion: the enemy was strong."

Horo used his fist to hit a tree beside him. "Damn it. Then what can we do?"

Jun frowned slightly. "Were they really killed?" she asked. Everyone turned to her. "What?" They asked.

The Dao Shi continued. "I mean, no one saw what happened, so isn't it possible that they accidentally set themselves on fire? Maybe they had matches with them or something."

"But, Jun-sama," Pailong called attention to himself, "they had no reason to light the fire."

"and even if they did, they would be able to put it out before it got out of hand." Lyserg added.

"You're right…sorry. I shouldn't look down on someone else's death so easily." Jun apologized.

Yoh offered a weak smile. "Don't feel bad. You were just trying to look on the bright side, hoping that it was an accident, since it means that none of the rest of us will be in danger." Jun smiled a little at his comforting words.

Yoh then put his hands behind his back. "Don't worry guys, it'll all work out. Let's just forget about Hao for now. We have better things to do then think about the dead coming back to life."

—End Flashback—

_Did onii-kun really die…?_ Yoh shook his head. _I'm the one who said not to think about it, so I shouldn't…_

Despite that thought, he continues to think about his older twin.

_Hao has killed many people. It wouldn't be weird if he wants revenge on us for destroying his dream…but why would he start there? If he wants revenge, then he would've come here…I'm doing it again. Just forget about him, Yoh!_

The young shaman tries to convince himself, but he can't.

_If he **is** alive, then I would have neither guilt, nor regret, for what I have done, because I didn't do anything that will cause that guilt or regret. This fact is enough that makes me unable to settle my mind in forgetting him…_

He turned to the side, so that from his angle, he can see the starry sky from his window.

_As much as I hate to admit it, I do hope that he is still alive. If he is, then he must be looking at the same sky…_

* * *

Hao looks up at the starry sky as he lays down in a tree next to a lake in the outskirts of Izumo. 

Tomorrow, he decided, tomorrow will be the day that he kills off his family, and pacify his anger, once and for all.

_Also…_

The powerful shaman looks downward into the lake at his reflection. He stared at the reddish-brown hair, the dark-colored eyes. He turned back upward and thought about his dream, about the boy that looks exactly like him, save for a little differences.

_Also, I will find out about 'Yoh'. Just who is he and why does he look like me? Why do I feel sad(and something more) when I look at and thought of him, instead of anger like that I feel for my family?_

Deciding to save all that for questioning his 'family' tomorrow, he drifts off into sleep, under the watchful eyes of the celestial beings above, shining softly.

* * *

_Hao opened his eyes to see himself in a meadow once again, except this time, there is no tree and the meadow isn't endless. It is like a field next to a house, a house that he was familiar with but couldn't place._

_Feeling that he has to approach the house, the long-haired shaman did, until he was standing right outside the door, contemplating at whether he should enter. Without a chance to decide, however, the door slid open, revealing a man and a long-haired boy, who apparently was about to leave._

"_I, uh…" Hao was about to explain himself, when the man started talking as if Hao's not there. "We really appreciated your help in ridding us of that demon." The man said in a tone of respect_

_Then, without warning, the man's thoughts entered Hao's head, surprising him. This time, he can tell that the man's **thinking** the words, since he didn't see his lips move._

'_This child is strong. Can he really be human? Such strange boy can only be the devil's son himself. Or maybe he's a demon himself, and is just trying to earn our trust.'_

_A woman's voice called to the man as she approached. "Dear, come here and help me set up the kitchen now that the demon's gone." She then noticed the child. "We are very grateful for your help."_

'_He hasn't left yet? This devil is probably only helping us to make us drop our guard around him. Well, I'm not going to let him take us by surprise.' The woman's thoughts entered Hao's mind, completely contrary to what she voiced. Then the two went into the house and closed the door behind them._

_Silence rang for a while, then Hao bent down to help the child. To his surprise, the child suddenly look up, as if through him, instead of at him. Hao blinked in surprise. 'This child looks like…me?' Great, another boy who looks like him._

_The child turned to the road, and went straight ahead. To Hao's astonishment, the boy walked right through him. The little boy then proceed to walk through the small village where the house is located, eager to get out of the place from the other end._

_Hao followed the child draped in a torn cloth and wearing no shirt with red pants. As the two are walking, one oblivious to the other's presence, Hao realized that the villagers are turning toward the boy, eyes filled either with hatred, rage, or disbelief. Then suddenly, voices started entering his head in tides, giving him a headache._

'_That's the child, right? The cursed one…' came a woman's sound. Hao turned to see a woman in blue kimono staring at the boy that continued walking, not turning to the voice._

'_He still hasn't left yet?' came the voice of an irritated man._

_Then a girl and a boy's voices joined. 'He's as young as me!' 'How can someone who looks like that be as evil as ojii-san said?' 'I better not make eye contact with him anyways or I might get bad luck.'_

'_That boy doesn't look bad, but okaa-san says that he's a bad boy who gives out curses; bad omen will befall me if I get even remotely close to him.'_

'_I wish that demon boy would leave the village soon.'_

'_We don't need him here anymore.'_

'_Devil's son should stay in hell.'_

'_I hope he leaves soon; he's just someone to be forgotten as soon as possible, since we have no use for him anymore.'_

'_If he can just be on his way as soon as possible, then we can just all forget about him and go on living.'_

_Hao held his head in his hands as the voices and curses kept flooding in. He faintly heard the child mutter so silently that only he heard. "Not again…" the child clenched his fists but kept his composure as he left the town. Hao chanced a backward glance and saw all the relieved faces on the villagers. 'Hope he doesn't come back…' was the last stray thought that wandered into his mind._

_He felt an unknowing sadness for not only the child, but strangely for himself as well. Hao doesn't know why, but he felt that he has a special connection with the child._

_When the two are a safe distance from the village, the smaller boy punched a tree before unclenching his fists. He looks back at the direction of the village, and Hao felt a sudden rage._

'_I think I'm feeling what the child is feeling. It all seem so familiar…Is this child…me?'_

_The child headed toward the forest, trying to get as far away from the village as possible. Hao silently followed, not at all bothered when the child quickened his pace, since he is smaller, after all._

_The child changed from his former serene self once they reached the forest. "Those filthy, self-centered humans! They don't feel any appreciations, do they? I'm so nice to them and helping them with my shamanic powers and what do I get?" He complained angrily to no one in particular; in this case, to Hao. "Derisive degradations, that's what I get!"_

_The long-haired boy then continued. "I will show them. Humans don't deserve to live in this world; only shamans do. Only those hand-picked by myself will have the privilege to live on in the world. I'll show everyone that I, the Great Asakura Hao, am correct, and that **they**, those pathetic ningens who don't value their existence, are wrong!...Of course, I'll endure it for now. Those demons that they tell me to get rid of actually come quite useful as shikigamis."_

'_Huh?' Hao asked himself before he fell through the earth. The scene then twisted and he finds himself in darkness. Voices then appeared out of nowhere, though not inside his mind. Familiar voices, voices of **himself**, appeared._

_The sound of fire burning and the desperate voice of a child. "Kaa-chan! Kaa-chan..."_

_Then an older voice. _

"_Shaman Tournament? Shaman King?"  
_

"_If I become the Shaman King, then I can fulfill my dream!"_

'_My dream? Shaman King?' the present Hao asked himself._

_An image of him, much older, appeared, standing beside the Spirit of Fire. Many people in similar Indian-style clothing confronted him. "Hao! How dare you betray us!"_

"_What's the whole point of being reborn in the Patch if I don't have a goal of taking the Spirit of Fire?" The older version of himself declared smugly._

_Before Hao had time to respond to the scene, his surrounding blackened again. He is now standing in the darkness. The child from before appeared in a glowing form before him. Hao stared down at him for a while, then the child suddenly changed, the form glowed white and changed to the older version from before. Another image popped out._

_The older Hao laid on the ground in a pool of his own blood, his hand reaching out to a cat. "Why did you betray me, Matamune? Why did you help Asakura Yohken?"_

_'Betray...Trust...?' After seeing his past, Hao didn't think that he could trust anyone enough to be betrayed... _

_Then, as if a movie gone haywire, the image stopped, and the surrounding disappeared, leaving Hao to stare at the lone form of the fallen shaman, who glowed white and suddenly split in half._

_The two parts reshaped themselves into two boys, standing, and as the light fades, the shapes clarified as the boys identified themselves to be a glowing form of 'Yoh' and himself, 'Hao'._

_Dream Yoh points to himself. "Yoh." He said._

_Dream Hao points to himself. "Hao." He said._

_The confused shaman stared at his doppelganger and Yoh. Then startled as Yoh pointed to the dream version of Hao while looking at the real Hao. "Onii-kun." The Hao that appeared from his past self pointed at Yoh and looked at his present self. "Otouto-kun." Then both disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Hao in darkness as he, too, drowned in the dark depths._

_As he was falling, voices, just voices rang all around him. The voices were familiar, but none gave him any feeling other than sadness and anger._

"_Twins?" **Fate.**  
_

"_Yes, and we don't know which one's Hao." **Chance.**  
_

"_Then we'll have to kill both, for the sake of humanity." **Decision.**  
_

"_Do it now!" this was followed by silence, then gasps.** Betrayal.**  
_

"_How foolish." Sounds of fire burning ensued, along with a man's yell of pain. **Revenge.**  
_

"_It's Hao!" "Kill him now!" **Destruction.**  
_

"_Ha ha ha ha ha! Too late…" **Regret.**  
_

_Silence, and then he went numb as nothingness surrounded him._

* * *

Hao woke slowly. He did not open his eyes. Instead, he kept them closed to contemplate his dream. 

_That was my past…it was from a long time ago, but when?_

Hao didn't really understand the dialogue in the end. Then he remembered _Yoh_ and _Hao_'s words.

_Onii-k…Otouto-kun…? I am…Yoh's older brother? Is that why we look alike? No, brothers don't exactly look alike…Then we are…twins?_

This new-found fact, however, does not appease his anger when he thought of the rest of the Asakuras. He finally opened his eyes, and saw that day had dawned. Not bothering to wonder why he had a bittersweet feeling when thinking of Yoh for the moment, Hao jumped down the tree, landing gracefully, and strode toward the direction of Izumo.

_I won't be forgotten. Not this time._

Izumo, where his family resides.

_Asakuras…my family, here I come._

To be continued…

* * *

Ningen – Human  
Ojii-san – Grandfather  
Okaa-san – mother  
Otouto – younger brother 

A/N: No one died in this chapter! (me feels proud) The story itself, I just checked, is **exactly** 2000 words(before I edited it and added more words but that's a good thing right?)! It was not counting the words 'flashback' and 'End flashback'. That is such a weird coincidence.

Well, anyways, some, scratch that, **a lot of** people are going to die in the next chapter, seeing as Hao is only a few miles away from Izumo. Not many people's death will be mentioned though, probably just 'family' in general, Youmei, Kino, and one of the parents. I'm going to leave either Keiko or Mikihisa alive in order to have someone inform Yoh about Hao, or that was the plan at least. This will lead to an angsty Yoh in the next chapter or the chapter after that. I'm spoiling so much for the readers, sorry.

The part about Hao's past life is made up. I just generalized it.

I don't know how angst works, so it might not be as angsty as I'm trying to make it sound.

Also, sorry for awkwardly ending the reunion so abruptly. I really don't know how to make the reunion come to an end in order to match the mood.

I'm not sure how long the fic will stretch but I'm not good with endings so I'm trying to come up with a plot line that'll make the ending easier to write.

**Reviewers:**( I know I already replied in the last chapter when I edited it, but who reads the same chapter twice?)

12uly: Thanks for correcting my careless mistake, and I hope I didn't make more in the process of correcting it O.o. Thanks for the review(s) too.

sweetsorrowthroughEternity: Yes, poor Tamao and Ryu but...well...it's part of the plot. Here's more for you!

**Coming up next: **The blood of the Asakuras 

"Now tell me, where's Yoh?"——"… we won't tell you."——"Then I no longer have the need for you…"

Thanks to everyone who read. Special thanks to everyone who reviewed. I hope I can finish the story before the inspiration is gone; everyone, please REVIEW.


	5. The blood of the Asakuras

Thanks everyone for your patience and I hope that you enjoyed the fic so far. I think everyone wants to kill me for killing the characters but I warned you, and more are to come, no doubt. If you don't like it, don't read it.

Summary: **AU, Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

**This is important! **_Well, I have actually already planned out the next few chapters, but someone suggested that I kill Anna, just to see Yoh's reaction. I want to know if anyone supports that, because then I have to think of an alternitive for the turn of events._

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah - narration

"Blah blah" - dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _ - thoughts

**Nantoka Naru**

Chapter Four: The blood of the Asakuras

Yoh got up to the sharp pain of Anna's pan against his head. "Wake up, Yoh. You have to make breakfast and go run your fifty laps." The blonde demanded in her queen-like, self-centric tone.

The said boy sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. "Awww…but Anna! It's Sunday! Even if I wake up later than 4:30am I'll still have time to finish the training!"

Anna hits Yoh again with the pan. "If you change your routine just because it's a Sunday, you'll slack off on the weekdays, now get up before I add more laps!"

Yoh reluctantly got up as his fiancée left after leaving him with that threat. He can hear the sound of wood against metal as Anna went to wake the others in a similar fashion, except banging a ladle on the pan instead of the pan on their heads. Well, she _did_ insist that they stay, and she _did_ insist that they pay for the stay, since this is an inn, after all.

Yawning, Yoh thought of the events of the reunion a day before that was supposed to be a joyful meeting. He shook his head at the thought. There's no use worrying about the past when the present is waiting.

He isn't going to just forget it, but he won't waste time moping over it either. Yoh is sure that his friends are just as strong-willed. He quickly made and ate the breakfast with the others, then left the inn to do his morning laps, typing up his hair into a ponytail with a loose piece of string. The sun's warm ray hit his face as he stepped outside.

_What a nice day; a nice weather calls for a bright fortune; _and with that thought in mind, he set off on a light jog to start his laps.

Little did he know of the tragedy that is about to occur to his very family.

* * *

Asakura Hao walked into the rural city of Izumo in serenity. The place is quiet, with few people walking their dogs or doing morning jogs in the early dawn. He surveyed his surroundings, and realized that he has no idea where the Asakuras live. 

He stopped a woman that is taking a morning stroll. "Um…can you tell me where the Asakura residence is?" he asked in good manner. The woman's reaction, however, surprised him.

"You're gonna go to that freak house?" she replied in disgust for the family. Hao slowly nodded. _He must be one of them freaks. _"Whatever. If you go to the end of the city, a little way out should be a temple. They live behind there. It's really big, so you can't miss it." She pointed then quickly went on her way, wanting nothing more to do with the person who's looking for that family.

"Arigatou…" Hao thanked with uncertainty, not sure if she heard since she's already at the end of the block ready to turn the corner. He is surprised that he got used to this mind-reading ability so quickly. He felt a burning rage, however, at being called a freak.

_Worthless humans…_

He didn't know where that came from. The thought unconsciously popped into his mind, but he controlled himself from killing the woman on the spot and making a scene. It will allow the Asakuras time to escape. To appease his anger for his family, right now, is his top priority.

Hao followed the direction and quickly came up to a large traditional Japanese estate that he feels familiar with. The name plate indicates that it's the one he's looking for. Upon seeing that name, anger flared up in him again.

_Time to shed the blood of the Asakuras._

* * *

"Hmmm?" In the living room of the Asakura estate, Kino broke the silence that resulted from everyone minding their own business. Kino was drinking tea, thinking to herself, Keiko was knitting, Mikihisa has gone out on an errand, and Yohmei was reading. The family had joined back together after the Shaman Tournament. The sudden voice caught the others' attention. 

"What's wrong, kaa-san?" Keiko asked as she paused in her knitting.

Kino shook her head. "Nah, I'm just wondering why Tamao isn't back yet. That girl said that she'll go visit that Ainu and then will immediately go to the reunion, but she didn't say that she'll spend the night there. It shouldn't take her long to return."

"Don't worry," Yohmei said, putting down his book, "I'm sure they just stayed late and she's on her way back right now."

Keiko nodded reassuringly. "Tamao can take care of herself." They all heard the door slide. "Oh look, she's here n…" her voice trailed off as she looked up to greet 'Tamao'. The others turned as they wondered at her behavior. Their reaction, that of absolute shock and hatred, was in unison.

There, leaning against the door frame, dark brown eyes full of anger as they scanned the room to each of its occupants, is a familiar face of Asakura Yoh's older twin brother. The blackened silhouette of a maid, dead before she can utter a sound, imprinted on the wooden floor behind him; a tray, flipped upside down, is a few distance from her hand, glass pieces and oddly-colored liquid of tea disturbed the smooth-looking walkway, indicating her before-death intention.

"Hello family." The millennia-old shaman said in a not-so-kind tone, as malice dripped from each and every word. "It's me, Hao."

* * *

It is now mid-morning, and Yoh's perspirations making his hair drip in sweat as he was running his thirty-seventh lap. Noting the absence of the usual spirits that his itako fiancée ordered to follow him, the young shaman decides to stop by the convenience store to buy something nice and cool, like a popsicle. It's just a simple treat for his hard-working self (forced to be hard-working, more accurately). 

Upon entering, he saw the familiar back side of his friend. "Hey, Manta." Yoh smiled as he tapped the short Oyamada, making the blonde boy jump as high as Yoh's eye level.

"Whoa, Yoh! You scared me!" Manta exclaimed as he turns around. "What are you doing here? Aren't you doing your laps right now?"

Yoh smiled as he grabbed a popsicle off the freezers of the convenience store. "Well, Anna's Ghost Minions of Doom aren't following me today, probably busy, so I decided to stop by. It's so hot outside."

Manta laughed heartedly, and sighed, turning serious. "Yoh-kun…"

"Yeah?" Yoh turned to his friend from the counter as he was paying for his self-treated popsicle.

"I've been thinking…" Manta begins, but was cut off by Yoh.

"If you're talking about the fire, don't worry about it. I said to forget about Hao." He sucked on the popsicle and left the store, saying that despite his thoughts about his twin just the night before. Manta followed his friend after he paid for the book he was buying.

Manta sighed again. "I know, but it's hard. I'm sure everyone else thinks about it too."

Yoh brought the popsicle from his mouth and grinned. "Fine. What do you want to talk about? The more time I spend listening to you, the more time I have to rest."

Manta laughed weakly at the last comment. "Well, I was thinking. _If_ Hao _is_ the one that killed Tamao and Ryu, then wouldn't he go for your family too?"

Yoh seems to think about it for a while, then gave up and shrugged. "Well, I'm sure jii-chan and tou-chan will protect kaa-chan and baa-chan. Even if they aren't exactly as strong as Hao, they can at least manage to escape." He smiles again. "Don't worry, Manta. Nantoka naru, ne?"

"Aa." Manta gave Yoh a smile, reassured. "Well, then you better get back to your laps, Yoh-kun. Thanks for talking to me."

"No problem." Yoh waved goodbye to Manta, threw away his popsicle stick and was just about to start jogging again when Manta suddenly called to him. "Hmm?" Yoh asked.

Manta gave a smile that contains a bit of a semi-malice that doesn't exactly suit him. "I just met Amidamaru that time, and he told me to tell you, if I meet you, that Anna-san wants you to finish before nine, or she'll add twenty laps." Manta related the message to his best friend. "By the way, it's eight-thirty now." He added.

"NANI!" Yoh's eyes widened. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Tears in anticipation of doom came to the young shaman's face. "I still have thirteen laps to go…" Then he hurriedly went off in a mad dash, forgetting his earlier intention of a small jog.

* * *

The three Asakuras stared in surprise as the elder son of Keiko's twins looked down at his sitting family. 

"What's with the silence? Too shocked at seeing your _beloved_ son coming to visit you?" Hao inquired, his eyes still filled with rage, lips not smiling at the sarcasm.

Yohmei is the first one who stood up. "Hao! What are you doing here?" He called out his leaf spirits in defense of the other two. Keiko quickly aided her father by summoning three shikigamis. Kino, not being able to do anything, stayed to the back.

Hao ignored the question and decided to ask them one himself instead. "Do you guys know where my otouto-kun is?" He went straight to the point.

"What do you want with Yoh?" Keiko asked, worrying about her younger son.

The seemingly-young shaman didn't answer, but instead plunged deep into thought at this.

_So Yoh **is** my younger brother…What do I want with him, she asks?. I just wanted to see him and talk to him. I want to know why I feel so bitterly sad and in pain when I thought of him._

Hao's sudden realization at his emotions made him think of his loneliness.

_This feeling…it feels more like…jealousy? What does he have that I don't? What don't I have?_

The onmyouji looked at the three in front of him.

_I have no one…so Yoh must have **someone**…_

Hao was interrupted in his thoughts when Yohmei summoned up more leaf spirits to attack him. The 'young' shaman turned his attention to the weak attack and quickly dissipated them with some fireballs. He then quickly fought off, with not much effort, the shikigamis that his own mother had ordered to attack him.

Yohmei, seeing that his and Keiko's attacks aren't working, quickly went to Kino and prepared to tell the blind itako his plan, whispering in a low tone.

"I will distract Hao. Kino, when there's an opening, go get whoever's left of the estate and bring them over for back up. We need to survive until Mikihisa returns…"

_Mikihisa is not back yet, so we won't stand a chance, but if Kino can go get help from around the estate…_

Hao, having heard Yohmei's thoughts, quickly smirked and guessed what they're whispering about. "Sorry to interrupt," Hao said in mock politeness, "but there's no one else left in the estate, I made sure of that." He waved his hand backwards, and Spirit of Fire appeared behind him. "Now tell me, where's Yoh?" he demanded.

"If you want to go back to get revenge at him for stopping you from becoming the Shaman King and destroying your chances of achieving your dream, we won't tell you." Keiko said defiantly, distraught at the fact that they are helpless unless Mikihisa comes back soon.

_I thought Hao already knows that Yoh lives at Funbari Hill though, he's sent people there before…Did he asked that just to spite us? He didn't seem very sarcastic when he asked…_

Her thoughts flowed like water into Hao's mind. As much as he hate his Reishi ability, it proved quite useful, and he stopped smirking. "Then I no longer have the need for you. Any last words?" he asked as Spirit of Fire burned away the whole front wall, leaving them a view of all the dead bodies of the other Asakuras, as well as servants, in the courtyard behind him.

Hao didn't bother asking them about the Shaman King, his dream, or why he would already know where Yoh is. Those are part of his memory that he can ask his 'otouto' about later. Now, he just want to get rid of this undying rage.

"Wait!" Kino said as Hao raised his hand for the final blow. Her grandson and ancestor blinked in surprise. He hadn't actually expected people to _have_ any last words, even though he asked. "What? And make it quick."

"I have two questions for you: One, why do you suddenly want to kill us when you haven't even made the move before? Two, are you responsible for Tamao's absence?" The old itako asked her eldest grandson the questions that the other two are also confused about, hoping to gain more time as well as to satisfy their curiosity.

Hao decide to give them one last luxury by answering. He remembered last night's dream, and he suddenly understood it. "One, you, my parents, the rest of my family, abandoned me when I needed you most, when I needed a family most. You decided to kill me instead, even willing to kill another innocent boy. Just the thought of you anger me, so any close relatives or anyone in close relation with the Asakuras must die. I was surprised myself that I hadn't thought of killing you before." _Except Yoh, since I feel no rage for him; he was a victim, too._

"Two," he continued, "if when you said Tamao, you meant that pink-haired girl, as I remember the one she called 'Ryu' calling her 'Tamao-chan', I killed her as well as Ryu, since she has been living with the family, she's almost like a part of it."

The answers both surprise and angered the three. Yohmei was about to attack, but before he had the chance, Hao shot an entourage of fireballs at them. Some of the leaf spirits manage to cancel out the fireballs, and some hastily summoned shikigamis caught a lot as well, but there was just too much. The remaining fireballs made their way past the heavy defenses and soon, the old man felt himself catch fire, as well as Kino and Keiko.

_Why is he recalling them as if he doesn't know who they are to start with?_ Kino asked herself as the flame licked her entire body, and she turned to see Yohmei and her daughter consumed by the flame as well.

* * *

Mikihisa headed toward where his house is located, and suddenly noted the large amount of smoke that was previously blocked by a tall tree, as well as the orange-yellow color of flames. No one crowded around the so called 'freak house' in their mind. The shaman quickly dashed toward it. 

He stopped outside and saw the figure of his older son, back towards him, staring down at the scorched remains of three of his closest relatives. "Onward to Tokyo…" the young Asakura utter those words as he goes to take one last look around the estate to see if he missed anyone from his 'family'.

Mikihisa used this chance to escape as he went toward where his younger son resides. He is smart enough to know that he is no match for Hao, but if they all combine strength, they might just be able to defeat him, since the Spirit of Fire does not have the power of the Great Spirit anymore.

_I have to warn Yoh…!_

To be continued…

* * *

Arigatou – "thanks" -used more informally than arigatou gozaimasu  
Tou-chan/otou-san – father  
Baa-chan/obaa-san – grandmother 

A/N: Well, there! I killed off most of the Asakuras family. I chose for Mikihisa to live, since I added in the conversation of Yoh and Manta where Yoh said that if Mikihisa and Yohmei are there, they could've escaped.

It seems that when I edit, I don't erase much words but add sentences, so they are a lot longer after edited than before. That's a good thing, though, right:gives hopeful looks:

I'm not sure if this information is correct but I read somewhere that a miko can use shikigamis. Keiko is a miko, so she should be able to use shikigamis.

Just a random question: Does anyone know which one of Zenki and Kouki have five eyes and which one have only one? I just know their names but I don't know which one is which.

Oh yeah! So far, no one knows that Hao has lost his memories. He doesn't exactly give the people he talk to any chance to know, since he just kills them and talked to strangers that don't know him…

Angsty Yoh in the next chapter. Tell me if the angst sucks, because then I will take angst out of the category.

**Reviewers**:

sweetsorrowthroughEternity: Yes, this has a happy ending, so it'll be along something like that. I think it would be really random, but I'll see how it turns out. Thanks for your review!

Leuv: I just found a site to download Mappa Douji two days ago and read it. Yes, he really is very cute as a child. I'm glad you like my story. Here's an update.

12uly: You know, I went back and read the first chapter, and I as awed at the number of mistakes I made. That's probably why you didn't correct them all for your review on the first chapter. Anyways, thanks for pointing out my mistake, thanks for coping with that and read my story even though there are such silly mistakes.

Kaoru Gal: Kaoru Gal? THE Kaoru Gal? The one that wrote Resistance and Flowing with the Music and all the other good stories? I am honored. Thanks for reviewing . Here's the update.

**Coming up next**: Shattered Morals  
"Here, Yoh-kun, eat."——"I'm not hungry."——"…You need strength to face Hao when he comes."—— "He'll just kill us all anyways."

I am very grateful for everyone's support, and I hope that everyone will continue reading. I would feel better if people reviewed, but just knowing that people read it makes me happy. Anyways, please REVIEW.


	6. Shattered Morals

Summary: **AU, Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah - narration

"Blah blah" - dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _ - thoughts

**Nantoka Naru**

Chapter Five: Shattered Morals

"Tadaima…hi, Anna." Yoh returned, soaked wet in his own sweat, to the blonde itako, arms crossed in anticipation, irritation obvious in her countenance at waiting so long for her fiancé.

"You're twenty minutes late," Anna calmly commented as she saw the brunette's face turn white, herself angry at him for making her wait twenty minutes. "Go run twenty more laps, and be back before lunch."

Yoh sighed in defeat and set off again, trotting at a faster pace this time, in case he had to run more again; there _is_ still more training later.

In less than ten seconds, however, Yoh heard a distant _SMACK!_ and wondered who made his self-centric fiancée mad. Shaking his head to disregard it, he went off, eager to finish his runs.

insert line here

When he returned, more perspiration is dripping from his whole body, making it look like he just jumped into the pool without changing his clothes.

Horohoro can be seen cleaning the hallway floor, obviously forced into it by the itako as Lyserg watched the counter, while "Her majesty the Queen Anna-sama" can be heard watching her favorite soaps.

Ren was apparently the one who ticked off Anna somehow, since Yoh found him in the bathroom, scrubbing the floor and the toilet with a clear, evidently lasting handprint on his face. He smiled, slightly amused. Ren noticed it and growled.

"What!" he snapped, irritated that his long-time rival should see him in such a humiliating situation. Yoh laughed. "I should be the one asking you! What did you do to Anna that made her mad?"

The Chinese shaman is now really annoyed. Not only had he humiliated himself, he had done it twice in two days. "Nothing! All I did was voiced in question how you manage to stand that…" Yoh raised an eyebrow as his friend looked around, listening to make sure that his rival's fiancée is still watching her soaps. "I was just wondering out loud how you manage to live with that demonic abusive girlfriend." He dropped his voice but finished with a scowl.

Yoh laughed heartedly. "I try to cope."

"Cope with what?" The cold voice made both of them freeze. Yoh stiffly turned around. "A-A-A-Anna…hi…?" He tried. Behind him, Ren has on an expression that he has never had before: fear.

_SMACK! SMACK! SMACK, SMACK, SMACK, SMACK, SMACK…_ The loud noises echoed through the inn. Horo heard it, but dare not pause in his work, fearing that it would be his fate next.

Some pitiful screams went on until Jun and Pilika called everyone to lunch from the kitchen. When Faust and Eliza came in from their leisure time outside, Faust stared at Yoh and Ren's face in wonder. "Did you two go bother a hornet's nest?"

"Something like that…" Yoh replied, quickly shutting up as Anna came in with Horohoro, who didn't dare leave his job until he was permitted to.

* * *

Horo was fidgeting restlessly all through lunch, as Manta noted. "Is something wrong, Horo?" He asked, wondering if the Ainu's sick. Horohoro just shook his head and kept eating, at a very fast pace. 

Everybody soon found out why he was fidgety. Yoh, Ren, Horo, Lyserg, Jun, Pilika, and Manta all went out for some fresh air while Anna went back to her soaps, having asked Faust and Eliza to watch the inn for her.

As soon as they were outside, Horohoro finally couldn't hold it, and burst out in a completely out-of-control laughter as he points at Ren and Yoh's faces. Yoh laughed along while Ren fumed and, raising his Kwan Dao, charged at the Ainu that just displeased him more after his third shameful encounter with the blonde itako's legendary left _and_ right (or, as he said himself, "Ore-sama should never be humiliated with slaps by a lowly itako", making sure that the blonde was miles away before voicing that thought. "Right, Bocchama!" his spirit had agreed.).

Horo gave a whelp as he ran away from the murderous plunges, Ren's intent to kill dripping from every thrust.

Jun and Pilika looked at their siblings in joy. After the recent miseries, everyone needed to relief their tension. Manta also sighed in content as he looked at Yoh's laughing, albeit badly bruised, face. Lyserg smiled merrily to the side, keeping his ever-graceful countenance.

But, things never last, and the chase between the purple-haired shaman and the bluette was halted as they all see a figure approaching them at extreme speed at four o'clock in the afternoon. Upon closer look, Yoh realized, with a shock, that it is his father, Mikihisa Asakura.

* * *

Mikihisa had wasted no time. He called his birds to get to Funbari Onsens as fast as he could. He also changed his Tanuki and Kitsune into wings to aid him speed-wise((A/N: can his spirits change into something like that and still carry him?)). He got there in less than a day, thankfully. 

"Tou-chan, what's wrong?" He heard the younger of his twins ask him, concern in his very voice.

"I, Yoh, I…" Furyoku almost depleted, the paternal figure dropped to one knee, panting heavily. His son and the Chinese shaman hurriedly went to support his limp body, his Dao Shi sister telling her Jiangshi to help as well.

"Get him inside first." Faust, having heard Yoh's shout from earlier, had came outside to investigate.

Yoh nodded in agreement, and he, with the help of Ren, Pailong and later Horohoro, propped up his father so that they can walk to the living room.

Once there, Yoh hovered around him worriedly. "Tou-chan, are you really okay?" He asked for the seventeenth time. Mikihisa sighed.

"Yes, Yoh. I just used too much furyoku, that's all." Mikihisa took the water that Jun offered him thankfully, and drank the whole glass in one gulp, thirsty after the long travel.

"Why were you in such a hurry?" Manta asked, suddenly feeling like he doesn't want to know, hoping that it's just his paranoia working.

Mikihisa froze at the question, and fear swelled up inside everyone's heart. He shook his head.

"Ah…it was terrible…such a scene…" he slowly reminisced it, seeing scorched dead body everywhere, the whole front of his tea room burned down, the silhouette of the blind itako, the old onmyouji, and his wife burning in a deadly fire, too late to save.

Yoh's anxiety increased and he remembered his conversation with Manta that morning. _But I mustn't assume._ "What happened?" He urged. He _has_ to know, he _has _to make sure. _Oh Great Spirits, surely it isn't, I hope not…_

Of course, Mikihisa's next words were anything but good news, and with each word he voiced, the atmosphere grew tenser. "It was Hao…he's not dead…fire was… everywhere…everyone at the estate…even your jii-chan, baa-chan, and kaa-chan…I was out on an errand… if only I got back faster…" he trailed off, misery finally consumed him as he refused to say anymore, his stoic mask hiding his expression, but not his tears as they flowed freely down from under the mask.

Everyone froze in shock. Something then shattered inside Yoh. The deaf silence around him suddenly became unbearable. The brunette just straightened up then looked straight ahead, at no one, and walked silently out toward his bedroom, disregarding everyone. No one stopped him.

"Why don't you stay with us for a while, ojii-sama?" Anna broke the silence, and then went to her room as well.

* * *

Yoh did not come out of his room all night, nor the next morning. Everyone was worried about their friend, even Anna. She didn't go wake him with a pan the next morning, fearing what she would see of her beloved fiancé when she enters. She doesn't want to see his broken down state, and knows that he didn't want her to see either. 

It wasn't long before someone finally went over the top at the breakfast table. "I think someone should bring him something to eat," the doctor said, concerned.

"When he wants to eat, he'll come down." The Chinese shaman kept eating, worry laced in his tone nonetheless.

Pilika narrowed his eyes. "He might just starve himself to death." She said pessimistically. As much as everyone else doesn't want to believe it, it may just be possible, with what happened.

The Asakura monk is worried about his son as well. "He has to eat, whether he's sad or not. He has to live, since Hao is coming this way right now. If he wants to protect his friends, he must be strong."

Jun put down her chopsticks as she finished. "It's hard, really. He lost not only his friends, but his family as well. Not all of them, but the impact must be hard."

Lyserg looks at his food in distraught. "I understand his pain, though I lost my parents long ago. He experienced it just now."

"What?" Mikihisa asked. "Friends? You're still here, aren't you?"

"_We_ are," Horohoro said morosely, "but Ryu and Tamao aren't. Maybe Chocolove is dead too. He was very excited about the reunion when we talked on the phone. He had said that he'll make it through rain, storm, or snow, that he'll walk if he has to, but he didn't come."

It dawned on the masked-Asakura that his son lost a lot more than he did. "I…didn't know."

"He has to get over it, whether he wants to or not." Anna said, looking down at her food before continuing to eat.

"I'll talk to him," Manta suddenly said, surprising everyone.

Amidamaru came next to him. "Manta-dono…are you sure? Yoh-dono even told _me_ to get out."

Manta stood up. "No, I'll go." He turned to Eliza, "can you give me some food to take up to him?" She nodded and did as she was told. They all watched in hope as Manta carried the tray upstairs.

* * *

Manta quietly knocked on the door. "Yoh-kun?" he asked quietly. 

No response. Manta knocked harder. "Yoh-kun!" he said, a bit louder.

A muffled voice came out. "Huh?" Manta strained his ear to hear.

"Go away," came the familiar voice of his best friend. He sounded miserable.

Manta sighed. "Yoh-kun, we're all going through the same thing. People close to us died, and we're all going through the same sorrow you are. Whether more people you are close to died or not, the sorrow we felt for the dead is the same."

Silence. Manta is about to turn away when he heard a shuffling of cloths and a small, "just a minute."

Manta heard a lot of shuffling inside, a lot of things being shifted, then silence. After a while, the door slid open, and Manta entered. Yoh goes and sits on his futon, which he no doubt had just organized. Manta can see his friend trying to smile, but failing miserably. He offered the food. "Here, Yoh-kun, eat."

The short boy can see the bad state that Yoh is in. His hair's a mess, the orange headphones crooked, his eyes are red and there are streaks of dried tears on his face, indicating that he had been crying before. His clothing is disheveled, and there are signs of things randomly put away, as if they had been displaced before. He probably threw them out of frustration.

Yoh turned away. "I'm not hungry."

Manta sighed. "Yoh-kun, you have to eat. You need strength to face Hao when he comes." He shoved the tray at Yoh, who accepted it but did not touch the food.

"What's the point?" He puts the food down on the tatami floor. "He'll just kill us all anyways." He looks downward, his bangs shadowing his eyes. "He's already killed that many strong shamans."

Manta went so that he's sitting right across from his best friend, instead of next to him like before. "You're not the Yoh-kun I know. The Yoh-kun I know will smile and reassure everyone that things will work out, and then prepare to face Hao in order to protect the rest of his friends and family."

His friend is not convinced. "Well, the Yoh-kun you knew didn't fail at protecting everyone close to him, did he now? His family didn't die because he disregarded their safety. The previous Yoh-kun you knew had believed that Hao was really dead." He trembled at the thought of his failure and his hands shook.

The short blonde grabbed Yoh's shaking hands. "Aww, come one, Yoh-kun. Aren't you the one who said that everything will work out? We defeated Hao once before, remember? We will do it again if we have to. If you don't cheer up, then no one will." He offered a smile. "You're a great shaman, Yoh-kun, even if you yourself doesn't realize it."

Yoh looked up after a while and smiled weakly. "Yeah, you're right; I'll be strong. Thanks Manta."

_Some great shaman** I** am. I didn't destroy Hao, and I don't even have the strength to save my family and friends from him._

"Can you leave me alone for while, Manta? I want to think some things over." He said, trying to keep up his smile. "Oh, and take the tray of food too. I really am not hungry. I'll go eat when I am."

The walking encyclopedia, satisfied just seeing his friend's smile, nodded and got up, taking the food, and trotted downstairs.

When he slid open the door of the dining room, he felt all eyes on him, waiting. "H—He said that he's really not hungry right now, and that he'll come down and eat when he is." He puts the tray on the table.

"Well?" Anna crossed her arms. "What happened?"

Manta sat down and gave them a smile. "We talked things over, and he told me that he'll be strong. He said that he want to think things over for a while, so I left him alone." The whole group let out a breath that they hadn't known they were holding before.

"Great, now we just have to wait for him to come, and we can talk about how to defeat Hao." Horohoro said optimistically.

"I hope so," Anna muttered quietly, eyes shifting in the direction of her fiancé's room. "I hope so."

* * *

Yoh is glad that Manta bought his smile because, as soon as his friend left, the brunette's face returned to that of depression. 

He acted strong when Tamao and Ryu died, trying to assure his friends even though he pained inside. But when his family, most of them, fell to the fire of his twin brother, he could no longer keep up his calm front. For a person who values everyone around him as much as he, the pain is just too much to bear.

_Nantoka naru sa…_ Yoh tried to reassure himself, but failed miserably as he saw the old but lively faces of his grandparents and the gentle countenance of his kaa-chan, all covered in blood as fire eat away at their skin.

He took a deep breath and stood up. He promise Manta he'll be strong, so he'll at least act like it when he's around others; he'll act like his usual carefree self around them. The young shaman went to the upstairs bathroom and cleaned himself, adjusting his earphones and outfit before smiling into the mirror. The smile was so fake, that even one as slow as himself could see through it.

After some tries, he finally managed to smile without the fakeness of the gesture showing. Satisfied, he went down to the living room, where everyone is.

Everyone was delighted at seeing him, his usual smile, his careless gestures, as he put up the one-man act. "I'm hungry," he gave them his lazy smile. "Anything to eat?"

"In the dining room," Jun smiled. "And Anna cooked."

Yoh feigned a look of complete dismay on his face. "A—Anna cooked!" He put his hands to his face, creating a look of shock that he was proud to say looked very convincing. "You're serious?"

The itako quickly went up to him and gave him a hard punch across the face. "Don't dwell on it. It's your fault that the food's cold now. Go hurry up and eat, and your training will start right afterwards."

Yoh disguised his unwillingness to spend too much time with them, in fear that his façade would break, with a cute pout. "Awww… not even giving me time for digestion?"

"No." The blonde answered flatly. "Now go eat before you die of hunger."

The brunette commanded his face into a mischievous smile. "Is that worry I hear, Anna?"

This earned him another punch, and he quickly went to the dining room. If he had turned, however, he would not have missed the relieved look, which would make him guilty for lying to them, on all his friends' faces, including Anna's and Mikihisa's.

To be continued…

* * *

Tadaima – "I'm back", used for when you go back home after you went to some place. "Okaeri nasai" or just "Okaeri" is the response to that, meaning "welcome back."  
Ore-sama –"my esteemed self" (not sure I used it the right way but I just found out what it means and feels like adding it in, thinking Ren is the perfect person to say it, since Hao has lost his memory.)  
Bocchama – "young master"; Bason's term for Ren.  
Ojii-sama –I'm not sure about this one, it goes somewhere along the lines of "sir". It's the term Anna uses when referring to Mikihisa. 

A/N: Frankly, I have no idea if 'bluenette' is even a word, but it seems right and fits Horo perfectly, so I just went ahead and used it.

I think I contrasted a lot the light scene in the beginning and the tense scene at the end. I don't know, maybe I wanted the mood to be a bit light before everything becomes dark and sullen.

I hope I didn't confuse too many people with Mikihisa's OOCness. I don't know his character very well. As for his ability, I'm not sure if his spirits can change into wings or if they can attached themselves to him in wing-form, but this is a fic so bear with me here.

Well, here's a little angst that ended pretty fast, even though Yoh's still in angst mode, despite the act that he's putting up. I want people to tell me if they want or don't want Mikihisa killed, 'cuz I just might do it. :gets killed by random fans: In fact, I already thought up the two different scenarios where he confronts Hao. They're pretty much the same, except one ends in Mikihisa's death and the other one doesn't.

I have a tendency to cramp many events into one day. I mean, except for the Prologue, the rest of the fic so far happened in, like what, four to five days? That's probably the reason why it's such a short fic…

Hmm…I think the fic will end at probably chapter eight or chapter nine. I'm not going to kill Mikihisa, but I planned on letting Yoh meet Hao, in person, in four-day's time(in the fic, that is, not four days in real life). On the other hand, I'm not good at judging things, so the ending might not come as fast; but it will be at least eight chapters, I promise.

The next chapter will be a short one, and won't really count as a chapter. It's just some angst (that I hope looks like angst) about Yoh.

Ah…I think I'll make the chapter after the next a short one, featuring Hao meeting Opacho. I'm contemplating whether Opacho join Hao. Probably not since it probably won't fit with the ending. I'll see.

**Reviewers**:

sweetsorrowthroughEternity: I tried to update fast since I found out you're going on vacation soon...hope I posted in it time . Have fun on your vacation!

12uly: Yay! No mistakes! I'm amazed at myself too. Sometimes I feel like you're the only reader that reads my pointless ramblings...hahaha. Anyways, I decided that I might not kill Anna after all, since I just couldn't get an ending in mind. Thanks for putting up with it.

Leuv: Ah, Hao is cruel, yes, and he didn't make an appearance in this chapter (bad authoress!) Well, he'll be all better after the next two chappies, since you know, people who lost their memories and never got help really can't understand themselves. I think people might like the cruel Hao better than the nice one. Maybe I'll do a fic on it. I'll see.

Kaoru Gal: Yes, we all love angsty Yoh and cool Hao. I just hope that I _can _do angst. It's my first attempt, so I'm trying to make it work...Anyways. Everyone should go read Kaoru Gal's stories too. I loved them.

**Coming up next**: Pieces of Oneself

_He shattered when he found out that he lost his family. He wanted to pull himself together, but he couldn't find all the pieces of himself that put together the old, carefree Yoh._

Thanks for the support minna-san. I hope that you'll keep reading and please REVIEW.


	7. Pieces of Oneself

Summary: **AU, Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah - narration

"Blah blah" - dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _- thoughts

'_Blah blah'_ - thoughts in dreams

_Narrations in italics_ - a dream.

**Nantoka Naru**

Chapter Five point Five: Pieces of Oneself

_How long has it been? A day? A week? Eternity?_

It had been torture for the young brunette. Five days, and his façade has become a part of his daily routine. In the first couple of days, he had a hard time keeping up that act of his old laidback self. Having to keep himself in check was more than ridiculous.

But now, the façade had become a part of his daily things to do; putting up that mask has become something he has gotten used to. It is simple, really. When he's with anyone, façade is the only thing he's showing; when he's alone, nothing but self-pity.

When he thinks that he couldn't keep up that façade any longer, when he felt that he's going to break down, he would leave them and retreat to the privacy of his own room. He has taken a habit of going there after each meal every single day. That way, he can keep himself in check. Of course, to them, he had proclaimed that he is doing some 'thinking' about the recent events and trying to figure a way to defeat Hao, but he knows that there is no hope. Miracles like that don't happen a second time; you're supposed to use it fully when it comes the first time.

He knows that he should be strong for them, and that he's failing them. But he's lost so much in such a short time, he felt like his whole world was falling apart.

As he closed his eyes on his futon and let fatigue overtake him, something else came along with sleep. It is the terrible nightmare that haunts everyone's dreams. As soon as he falls into slumber, he would see images, images of Hao, and himself, and his friends, and whatever's left of everyone he cares about.

_He is with his friends, and they are having a picnic in a beautiful meadow. They are all laughing happily, enjoying each other's company as if they have no care in the world. Yoh smiled brightly at everyone of them, treasuring each moment. Then at one point, they would start to play a game of tag._

_That's when Hao comes in. He would come, and he will laugh his maniacal laugh. Somehow, he became the 'it' in this little game of tag. Everyone he catches will burst into flames; and he always catch everyone, excluding Yoh. Then the younger brunette's friends will fade into fire, one by one, as Hao consumed them in his murderous flames. The whole meadow was suddenly on fire. Lastly, there will be darkness. He will see darkness and only darkness, not knowing where to go or how to leave. He'll be alone, all alone, with no one there. Everyone will leave him._

He woke up with a start.The nightmares are always the same, and as always, he panted heavily as perspiration mixed with his tears and rolled down his cheeks. Life became a living hell, and he wishes nothing other than for it to end. He's not dumb enough to cut himself; he hates pain. But the pain inside his chest is so much more unbearable, that he sometimes think that the other pain might be able to overshadow the one that never fades. He wiped his tears and slumped back down into his futon.

A light shone in from the hallway as the door slid open. "What's wrong?" Anna's voice drifted over in concern. Trust his fiancée to be worried. It was rare to see the cold itako care, and Yoh would always feign a surprised look, and get punched for it. Other times, like this one, he'll smile at her. "It's alright." He would always say that.

The itako seems skeptical, but she left anyways. If Yoh wouldn't say it, then she has no right to force him. Besides, she can guess at what's wrong with him.

The brunette laid on his futon, contemplating the recent days. Everybody's trying harder than usual to cheer him up. He can tell. The Tao's and the Ainu's bickering increase ten-fold, and their fight twice as much. They knew that Yoh enjoyed the show, or at least he used to. Now, in his depth of despair, he would laugh at it, but only on the outside. His inside would worry when Hao will come and kill them both on the spot.

He feels the need to comfort himself, telling himself that it's okay to be like this, telling himself that he has a reason to.

_Of course I'm not alright; I'm not as mature as tou-chan, so I cannot accept this as well as he could; my friends…I lost my whole family; they wouldn't understand; everybody else all look so happy, as if my pain didn't matter._

He looks up at the ceiling. He shook his head violently as that thought formed itself in his mind.

_No, this is not right. My friends are suffering their share of the pain. There's no such thing as suffering more or less._

Silent tears slid down the brunette's face once again, contrasting the peaceful night and the bright, glowing stars that surrounds the gentle moon.

_I hate having to lie to everyone and pretending that I'm alright. I hate not being there for my friends when they are also suffering. I hate losing so many people, but fearing that I'll lose more instead of having hope that I can protect them. But most of all…_

He pulled the blanket tighter to himself and turned in his futon.

_Most of all…I hate myself for being so damn weak._

The night is so silent that one can hear a pin drop. Yoh had stopped crying, tearstains marking his once peaceful face. He shattered when he found out that he lost his family. He wanted to pull himself together, but he couldn't find all the pieces of himself that put together the old, carefree Yoh.

_Now…I'm nothing._

He berated himself for breaking down when the others went on. He cursed himself for running away from reality and shutting out the rest of those that he cared about and cared for him. He blamed himself for all the deaths.

He felt ashamed that even though he did not kill Hao, the person who killed his family, he does not feel even a bit sad that Hao is still alive.

He couldn't find the missing pieces of himself, and he doesn't know why.

To be continued…

* * *

A/N: Well, here's something I would call a semi-angst, as it is angst in my opinion but probably something else altogether. I don't know if this count as angst...if it isn't angsty enough, I'll probably take angst off from the category. 

This one is short, I know. I can't seem to drag angst very long. The gloomy mood never last in my fics, since I want everything to work out fast. I didn't like this chapter very much; I tried to rewrite it many times, but it still sucked...

The next chapter will be the short about Hao and Opacho's meeting that I mentioned last chapter.

**Reviewers:**

sweetsorrowthroughEternity: Is this one on time? If it's not, then I hope you had a happy vacation, or will have, in case of if it's on time. Anyways, another double update! Simply because this chapter is too short and the next one is too short and two shorts make a long(?), I guess. And yes, Hao confrontation in the future, near future! But not the next chapter. This is actually a short fic.

l2uly: Thank you for telling me my mistake. Anyways. No one else will die, since it's just too sad. Unless peopel want me to kill Mikihisa. I will kill Mikihisa if people want me to. It's not hard. And then, no one else will die. XD (Ah, yes, readers, Ojii-sama is uncle, not sir. I'm too lazy to go repost it, so I will do it when I'm not lazy...I guess.)

Leuv: Sorry, Yoh is angsty this chapter, and won't appear in the next one, and in the one after that, he'll be angsty until the end. But after that, it'll all go uphill, I hope. Double update for the shortness! Slight humor in the next chapter.

Kaoru Gal (2 hungry 2 sign in): Your username just gets better and better XD. Anyways, thanks for complimenting my angst. I am so honored as you are like the queen of writin angst...is that a compliment?

**Coming up next**: Letting the Past Slide by -a short side story-

"You want to be my friend?"——"Yoh-sama has a lot of friends."——"But I'll be _Hao-kun_'s first friend."—— "Thank you, Opacho."

Well, hope everyone is content with the story so far. I would only know if you guys REVIEW.


	8. Letting the Pass Slide by a side story

Well, here's kind of a side short about Opacho and Hao. Since this is a side, I probably won't make Opacho join Hao.

Summary: **AU, Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah - narration

"Blah blah" - dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _ - thoughts

**Nantoka Naru**

Chapter Six: Letting the Past Slide by -a short side story-

After letting Spirit of Fire devour the souls of the Asakuras, Hao decided to walk to Tokyo, flying only when he neared other cities. Now that he has a destination, he doesn't have to go through the ningen-filled places that he for some reason dislikes (even if he _was_ getting used to the Reishi ability). He wants to enjoy the nature-filled scenery along the way.

It was during one those walks through nature that he saw a little girl to the side of the road, the whole body, except the feet, wrapped in a poncho like his(but much smaller), and a small head supporting an afro that's almost as big as the whole person. She is wearing gold hoops on her wrists and ankles, around two each. The girl is sitting on a rock, munching away at a somewhat-edible-looking fruit.

The girl looked up at the sound of his approach and, as much a stranger as she is to Hao, her face brightened in excitement, jumping up and down after getting off the rock.

"Hao-sama!" she approached the confused shaman and gave him a tight hug, as tight as her little body could manage, at least. Suddenly realizing her action, however, she let go apologetically and coughed. "Sorry for Opacho's rude gesture, Hao-sama."

Hao looks, still confused, at the girl, not knowing why she's sorry. "O-Okay…"

The girl smiled. "Hao-sama must be wondering why Opacho is not scared of meeting him, but happy instead. Opacho will tell Hao-sama that she came to apologize."

The long-haired shaman wanted to say that he's actually wondering 'who are you?' but that sounded rude so he just kept that to himself, and continued to look confused. "Apologize for what?" he finally asks the girl, whose name is apparently Opacho.

Opacho looked at him in admiration. "Hao-sama didn't even blame Opacho; Opacho is touched." The little girl smiles innocently. "But Opacho knows now."

"Knows what?" The confusion failed to leave his face, and Hao's feels that he's being thrown off track, as the girl is apparently taking everything he said the wrong way. He has no idea what this girl, who just came out of no where, is saying.

"Hao-sama chased Opacho away because he was doesn't want Opacho to see his defeat, right?" Opacho said excitedly, like first-grader that got an answer that the teacher asked. "Hao-sama must have foreseen his defeat, even though he didn't want to admit it."

"I…" Hao attempted to explain, but Opacho cut him off.

"Opacho finally understand now, Hao-sama. Opacho was stupid not to before."

Hao bent down and grabbed her shoulders before she could say anymore. "Listen, Opacho, I have no idea who you are."

_Wait, that sentence sounded more cruel than I intended…_Hao winced as he saw Opacho's crestfallen face.

"No, Opacho, wait," he quickly corrected himself, causing the younger girl to look up curiously. "I mean, I don't remember anything save for my shamanic abilities, my spirit, and my family name. I must've hit my head somewhere or something."

Opacho's eyes widened in understanding, and she nodded. "Then Hao-sama has lost his memories?" Hao nodded. "Then Hao-sama doesn't remember his dream?" he shook his head.

Opacho paused a while, then asked a question that greatly surprised the older shaman. "Does Hao-sama still wants to destroy humans?"

Hao looks shocked at Opacho, bemused, and then he smiled. "The thought never crossed my mind." He thought for a while, "though I do want to destroy the Asakuras, since I get furious when I thought of their name. They made me mad when I thought of how they tried to kill me after I was born. I think that's a whole different matter than destroying the humans though."

"Does Hao-sama want to kill Yoh-sama along with the other Asakuras?" Opacho asked. Hao didn't know what answer she is expecting, but he shook his head.

"Not even for revenge?" she wondered aloud.

Her former master started going from calm to confused again. "Revenge for what?"

"For stopping Hao-sama from reaching his dream of becoming a Shaman King." She plainly explained.

Hao thought a while, and decided to skip asking what a Shaman King is. "What can I do if I become a Shaman King?"

"Destroy the humans." Opacho turned her attention to her fruit, and continued munching.

Hao's stray thought dominated for a moment as he wondered if the green-dotted blue fruit is edible. _I mean, **no **food is** blue **naturally._ (A/N: blueberry is actually purplish.)

He shakes his head from that stray thought and answered, "then I don't really care whether I become Shaman King or not. Sure I'm not exactly fond of humans, and I'm sure my past-self really hated them, but I don't feel extreme hatred toward them now, and I feel no need to destroy them." He ponders that for a moment. "So I never wanted to kill Yoh. Even though I thought of destroying the Asakuras, I had always told myself that I am not going to kill Yoh."

Opacho looked up and gave Hao a smile, reddish-blue stains around her mouth. "Then Opacho likes the current Hao-sama better."

Hao stared at the stain, another stray thought passing into his head. _Wait…the inside is **reddish-blue**?_ On closer inspection, he realized that the green dots are blue on the inside and the blue part on the outside are red on the inside. _Is that thing even **supposed** to be edible? _The older shaman quickly shook away the stray thought; that fruit is seriously distracting.

Hao returned the smile and straightened up. "I still need to go see Yoh though. Just a feeling that I have to."

"Does Hao-sama want Opacho to go with him?" Opacho asked. "Opacho has lotsa free times."

Hao thought for a while, then shook his head. "No, Opacho should choose her own life. I'm on the road to decide mine, and you should be on the one that decides yours."

The young girl finally finished the fruit, and she nodded. "Okay, then Opacho will see Hao-sama in the future, hopefully."

Hao smiled and was about to continue on his way when he turned back. "Oh, Opacho?" he asked.

"Hai, Hao-sama?" the girl looked at Hao. He wonders why she call him Hao-_sama_, but decided that it was a part of the past that is no longer important. "Do you want to be my friend?"

Opacho stared wide-eyed at him. "Isn't Opacho already Hao-sama's friend?" she asked, fearfully wondering if she wasn't before.

Her former master gave her a gentle smile. "I don't know, but I want you to be Hao's friend, not Hao-_sama_'s friend. I don't know where I heard it, but true friends will always meet again, no matter how far away they go from each other."

Opacho smiled happily. "Hao-sama is sounding like Yoh-sama now."

Hao raised an eyebrow inquiringly. "Is that how he sounds like?"

Opacho nodded. "Yoh-sama has a lot of friends." She smiled at Hao. "But I'll be _Hao-kun_'s first friend."

The fire-using brunette smiled at the short girl. "Thank you, Opacho." He then turned to leave, waving a hand backwards. "We'll meet again, I'm sure of it, my friend Opacho-chan."

Opacho merrily stared after Hao's retreating back. It was the first time that Hao had used that term to address someone other than in a sarcastic way. After her former master's figure faded away, she went to a tree nearby and, jumping into it easily, grabbed another five of those green-dotted blue fruits, reddish-blue on the inside, that she was eating, then jumped down and went the opposite way that Hao was heading.

_We'll meet again for sure, Hao-sama…no, Hao-kun._

To be continued…

* * *

A/N: Okay, I know I made Hao-sama really OOC but I want him to turn good…After all, loosing memory is the first step to getting a second chance to change. 

I'm not sure I did Opacho's personality right, but I think that's about it. I don't know where she came from, why she's sitting on a rock in the middle of no where, where she's going, or _what_ she's eating(especially this), so don't ask me.

OMG I did not use any new Japanese words in this chapter :laughs at self:

And while I was proof-reading this myself, I saw that I had referred Opacho as both a girl _and_ a guy, and had to go back and change it. If anyone see more of that while reading, please either disregard it or let me know.

Hmm…this _is_ a short one…only a little more than 1000 words long…haha…But I double updated and two shorts make a long...XD.

**Coming up next**: A Dream to Share  
"Onii-kun, why are you doing this to me?"——"You're Yoh right?"——"Huh? Y-Yeah…"——"Well, it's nice to meet you, otouto-kun" ——"O-O"  
(I seriously am going to put that expression in the next chapter…)

Anyways, I hope this turned out well, since it's kind of a last minute thing that I came up with before writing chapter six…gotta change the mood a little. Tell me what you think and REVIEW.


	9. A Dream to Share

Summary:** Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah - narration

"Blah blah" - dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _ - thoughts

'_Blah blah'_ - thoughts in dreams

_Narrations in italics_ - a dream.

**Nantoka Naru**

Chapter Seven: A Dream to Share

Hao arrived in Tokyo at around noon one week after Mikihisa; he _did_ take his time, after all.

_There are a lot of people in this city; it **is **the capital. _Hao thought as his mind cramped with thoughts from other people, good and bad alike. It was an effort not to get irritated from others' thoughts and he managed to arrive at Funbari Hill. _I must find a place more quiet, a place like—_He looked around and saw a place—_the cemetery._

He look toward the direction of the hill, the many graves standing serenely in the calm breeze that gently lifted his long brown hair. It seems that the lesser spirits dwelling in those graves are at rest for the moment. In less than a second, he was there, at the top of the hill, gazing over the city, leaning against a tree.

_I'd never wanted to meet him again._ A stray thought wondered into his mind. He turned around to find a masked man, who was apparently just strolling. He felt anger burning inside of him. _Was there an Asakura that I missed? Come to think of it, the paternal figure **was** missing from that room I last went to; I just thought he died early._

He stood up, his peace destroyed. The figure approached him. "Hao," he calmly stated.

"Otou-san…" Hao's word surprised him. It was the first time that Mikihisa had heard Hao call him 'father'. "What did you say…?" he wanted to make sure.

"Hmm?" Hao wondered if he was wrong. "I said otou-san. You're not my otou-san?" He wasn't trying to be sarcastic, and didn't sound like it, but his uncertainty made Mikihisa think that he is.

"If I can help it, I wouldn't really want to be. I was just surprised that you actually called me that." He nonchalantly answered, trying to keep up a tranquil front while panic swirled at the back of his mind, wondering what trick his elder son is playing.

Hao seemed hurt and angry at the same time when he heard that Mikihisa doesn't want to be his otou-san. He blinked at the older man's thought, "hey, no tricks, okay?" He explained, reminding Mikihisa that he can read minds. "I'm just here to kill the remaining of the Asakuras, and to talk to Yoh."

_Well, that doesn't help the situation_. Mikihisa silently thought to himself as he quickly dodged an oncoming fireball, catching him by surprise. "What're you doing!" he almost shouted, rousing the spirits from their rest in the graves.

Hao's eyes flared with anger, different from their earlier serene form. "I said I came to kill the remaining Asakuras, and _you_ just happened to be one of them if you're my otou-san." He said coldly, Spirit of Fire behind him.

"Why are you doing this?" Mikihisa asked as another two fireball whizzed past him, missing him by millimeters.

"I think you know," His eldest son answered, "but just in case you're too dumb to figure it out, I'll tell you."

Mikihisa did not find the sarcasm funny, and neither does Hao himself. The answers came to Hao in an instant when it was never there before, now that the man in question is right in front of him.

"Otou-san, you and ojii-san tried to kill me when I was born, you guys shunned me and left me to survive on my own, regardless of how young I am. No one in the Asakura family gave a damn about me. You all look at me with disgust and hatred as if I don't deserve happiness. Above all that, Yoh and I were separated even before he was born; he didn't know about me, and he could've been the only person to ever accept me."

Hao shot five more fireballs, and as soon as his father dodged them, he pounced on the masked man. "I think play time's over." Hao said calmly as a fireball appeared in his right hand. Just when he's about to bring it down, though, he felt a presence behind him and jumped back, narrowly missing the attack.

The Tanuki and Kitsune spirit had formed into two sharp rock spikes, attempting to pierce him in a cross.

Hao stared at the troublesome weapons and their owner. "Chicchiena," Hao said irritatingly, "disappear." He waved his hand, and Spirit of Fire quickly consumed the spirits in flames. The spirits disappeared, leaving their master alone with his son.

"You're such an insignificant existence, otou-san," Hao said, his voice unwavering, as the words flow out like a speech. "What right did you have to end mine? You have had no right to decide my fate before I even had a chance to experience childhood. I never got to spend time with Yoh. You guys never gave me a chance to change."

Realization hit Mikihisa as he pondered his son's reasoning. Hao's right, he had never given him a chance to be happy, when he fully deserved it. They were too afraid that he has another plan, and never thought of a possibility that he might change. They merely shunned him like those in the past; those that are the source of his hatred. "Gomen nasai…"

Hao sighed and looked up the clouds, serenely floating by, all anger toward this Asakura suddenly gone from his mind. "That, and acceptance, were all I've ever wanted..." He paused, then looked at his otou-san. "If second chances are so easy to come by, I wish we could've started over…" He then walked away from the cemetery, leaving his father to stand there, still reminiscing the past.

"When I was at the Asakuras, they still hated me, even okaa-san who I thought cared. They hated me even after death, the deep hatred in the air was suffocating…" Hao muttered to himself sadly as he made his way out of city, deciding to come back after he can sort out the complicated thoughts and emotions in himself.

* * *

Anna sighed and looked toward Yoh's room as she ignored her soaps. Ever since Mikihisa told him of the news a week ago, Yoh has taken a habit of staying in his room for at least one hour after each meal, saying that he's just 'thinking' about some things, and even Manta couldn't get him to talk about it. He is his enthusiastic self when he's with the others, but they all know that he did God-knows-what when he's alone in the privacy of his room. 

Sure she's cruel to her fiancé sometimes (well, maybe most times), but that doesn't mean she doesn't feel anything for him. The brunette's action made her worry about his health.

The blonde sighed again and returned to the soaps, hoping that whatever Yoh's going through, he'll talk about it soon.

* * *

_The dream today is different from the ones before. He is not in the chaos of his mind. In fact, it is the exact opposite._

_The young brunette opened his eyes to find himself in a forest. The peaceful setting makes him calm, despite his earlier state. He knows that this is a dream. The reality is a lot more cruel than this._

_The sun's rays shine in between the dense leaves, casting an intricate pattern of shadow on his whole body and the soft earth beneath his feet. A hand wondered to the top of his head, and he realized that his headphones are gone. There is no human technology in this place whatsoever._

_Yoh felt something calling to him, and he followed in the direction where that feeling is emitted from. As he got closer to whatever's calling him, he noticed, in between spaces of the tall and thick tree, that there's clearing up ahead. He headed toward the clearing._

_The clearing is in the middle of the forest, a small circle surrounded by trees on all sides, a lake off to one side, taking up two-thirds of the clearing, and the last one-third to the other side, where grasses and flowers grow freely in a beautiful scenery._

_Under one of the trees at the edges, the short-haired brunette can see the silhouette of a person. He cautiously approached the person, whose face is hidden in the shadows of the tree he's sitting under._

_The figure apparently noticed him, because its head tilted, facing directly at the teenage boy, and stood up, walking toward him into the sunlight. Yoh gasped as he saw who it is._

_Asakura Hao stood smiling, facing his twin. Even if Yoh doesn't understand, the older twin is happy to be meeting his younger brother for the first time since his memory loss, despite meeting in a dream._

"_H-Hao!" Yoh exclaimed, surprise evident in his voice as he saw his older brother._

_Hao frowned slightly. "Your reactions are all the same. Is it so wrong for me to be alive?" he asks, irritated._

_Yoh calmed after a while, apparently seeing the distraught in his twin's face. "No, I was just surprised. It's not wrong. In fact, I'm happy that you're alive."_

"_You are?" the long-haired shaman raised an eyebrow._

_The younger twin went up and hugs his twin, surprising him. "Yeah…I thought I had killed you…I didn't want to kill you, no matter what you did. But…" he lets go and stepped back, "…you killed my friends, and **our **family. Onii-kun, why are you doing this to me?"_

_The older Asakura's eyes looked in wonder as he studied Yoh. "You're Yoh, right?" he asked, ignoring the question._

_Yoh's eyes widened, taken aback. "Huh? Y-Yeah…who else would I be?"_

_His brother didn't answer the rhetorical question, but has the face of a curious child interested in experiencing new things. "Are we meeting in this dream because we're twins?" another surprising question._

_The younger brunette doesn't know who to respond, confused by his brother's weird questions. "I…I guess so…"_

_Hao smiles at the uncertain response. "Well, it's nice to meet you, otouto-kun." He put his right hand up in the gesture of a friendly wave._

"_O-O…"Yoh's reply was a simple expression. _(A/N: Sorry guys, that's the thing that popped into my head when I was writing this part and it fits so well that I don't want to change it.)

* * *

"_So…you're saying that you lost your memory of everything that you've been doing up until you woke up in a desert?" Yoh, asked, half disbelieving._

"_Yeah, that just about sums it up." Hao nodded in agreement. They are now sitting down by the lake, Hao is sitting Indian-styled, his forearms resting on his thighs, while Yoh's legs stretched out forward, his arms on the grass supporting himself from falling backwards._

_Yoh pondered this for a moment, and decided to get back on topic, despite the peaceful mood. He asked the question that his twin ignored earlier. "Why are you killing my…**our** family then?" His eyes saddened._

_Hao looks at the lake, shimmering from the little sunlight that pokes through the dense leaves above. "When I woke up in the desert, I remembered nothing, and when I tried, my family name popped into my mind." He paused._

"_That doesn't explain anything…" Yoh is unsatisfied with the explanation._

"_Wait for me to finish, otouto-kun." Hao looked at him, irritated at his interruption, then looked back at the lake. "When I thought of that name, Asakura, I felt and unknown anger. I felt like I was tortured and betrayed by them."_

_Yoh didn't say anything, waiting, knowing that more are coming._

_As expected, the long-haired shaman continued. "I had unconsciously called up the Spirit of Fire to help me see in the darkness, and when I saw it, I realized that I am a shaman, and that I have intense power. So, I wondered…" Hao stares blankly at the forest across from the lake._

"_Wondered what?" Yoh demanded, slightly annoyed at the numerous pauses._

"_I wondered…" Hao continued. "I wondered why I hadn't killed them if just the mention of their name made me so furious."_

"_So, you went to kill them just because of that?" Yoh asked in disbelief. His brother, the one in front of him, is so unlike before. His way of thinking is so simple now, like that of a child's. There are no master plans, no considerabtion for his actions. He doesn't even consider the fact that if he killed all the Asakuras, his next incarnation won't be in a strong shmanic family; of course, if he doesn't remember, he wouldn't know he can transmigrate.  
_

_Hao looked thoughtful for a second. "Yeah…pretty much, added to the fact that I have no idea what else to do. Appeasing my anger at least both give me something to do **and **benefit me."_

_Yoh was about to comment when his twin continued. "During my travel to find them, I had several dreams, and I learned of you, and slightly of my past…a long, long ago past. I saw a older version of me, but that felt like the past too."_

_His younger twin looked at him. "It **is** your past. It's…" but Hao cut him off._

"_Don't tell me. I was curious before, but now, I don't really want to know anymore. I'll accept the truth when it comes, but I'm not in a hurry to know." He said, holding up a hand. "I don't know why, but I like the current me better." He smiled at the brunette beside him, "**and** I made a friend."_

_He looked front again. "She told me that she likes the current me better when I told her I don't want to kill you; I guess I got effected by her smile, the fact that someone accepted me, despite all the others that cringed at my appearance and declares that I drop dead where I stand."_

"_Which friend?" Yoh asked, curiosity getting the better of him._

_Hao smiled at his otouto. "Her name is Opacho."_

_Yoh doesn't know how to respond to that. "I thought Opacho is already your friend, except you drove her away." He said slowly, afraid that he touched a string, but Hao just smiled._

"_I'm not sure. When I offered her to be my friend, she told me the same thing. I told her I don't know about the past, but I hoped that she would be **my** friend, not that of the past me that had driven her away."_

"_I'm happy for you, onii-kun." Yoh smiled widely, happy that his brother is becoming more human._

_A pause, then Hao spoke again._

"_Dream turns to dust when life tries to shine; dream is the opposite of reality, whereas life is the epitome of it."_

"_Huh?" Yoh is confused by his brother's sudden saying._

"_This place is so peaceful, Yoh, unlike the human world, where there is always something wrong, always. Dreams don't last, and soon, this paradise will fade too. The reality, life, however, will always be there, whether you're the one living in it or not."_

_Yoh waited, wanting to know what his brother is trying to say._

"_I envy you, you know." Hao said straightforwardly._

"_What?" the younger shaman raised his head from his thoughts at this irrelevant statement._

_Hao closed his eyes, and then opened them again. "It's weird. To my family, I feel a deep rage. But to the one person in that family that destroyed my dream I feel nothing but sadness and pain. I couldn't understand it before, but now I do. It was jealousy, not sadness nor pain._

"_I always had a bittersweet feeling when I thought of you. I realized that it's because I both admired and was jealous of you. You live in a pradise, and had everything that I don't, Yoh. You had a home, friends, family…"_

"_Not anymore, thanks to you." Yoh interrupted bitterly. _

_Hao looked at him and smiled sadly. "Of course not. That wasn't my intention, but it was a bonus."_

"_Bonus!" Yoh exclaimed in disbelief, anger rising in him._

"_I was jealous, otouto. You had everything, and all I have is power and loneliness. I was envious, and wanted you to feel the same forlornness."_

_Yoh stood up angrily. "That's no reason for you to kill my family! They're **your** family too!"  
_

_Hao stood up calmly to face his twin. "They had never been my family. I was forced to either leave or die the moment I was born, even **before**_ _you were born. I was so angry, so furious that you have so much, that I want you taste my loneliness, my helplessness."_

_The fire-using shaman looked to the sky once again. "But despite all that, you'll never have that eternally shunned feeling that I'm always feeling; you'll never have to listen, every single moment, to people talking of you as a freak, a demon, someone who deserved only death, whether they voiced it or not."_

_At that moment, Yoh realized, that the boy standing in front of him is not Hao, his pyromaniac evil twin who's bent on purging the world of humans but Hao, his lonely older brother who's in search of acceptance._

_Yoh's eyes turn from anger to sadness. "Hao…" he went up and wrapped his brother in an embrace again. "I know the feeling of loneliness, and I know the feeling of being shunned."_

"_You do?" His brother narrowed his eyes sadly. Yoh nodded. "When I was small, all the people thought I was a freak because I can see things that they couldn't, I can talk with things that don't even exist to them, or just simply because I'm from a family of shamans. I didn't have any friends and always spent time with myself and a few spirits."_

_Hao closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, Yoh…"_

_Yoh chuckled softly, still holding his older brother in an embrace. "Heh, what's my fifteen years compared to your lifetimes? I still have my jii-chan and baa-chan but who did you have?" He slowly released his brother. "I just want you to know that things can change if you give it a second chance."_

_Hao closed his eyes and smiled. "I gave many things a second chance. Now **I ** want a second chance. It's just that… no one's ever given it to me… no words exchanged… killed or be killed…There's no one left to trust__…__" he opened his eyes again, and there is a gentle look in them. "Listen, Yoh, you think we can meet?"_

"_Huh?" Yoh looked at him, bemused._

"_I mean, we can't stay in dreams forever; your friends will be worried. The reason that we appeared in the same dream in because we're close to each other. I know where you are, so you think I can come visit you tomorrow?" Hao explained. 'I want to learn to trust. I want to know who I can really trust, without the possibility of betrayal.'  
_

_Yoh smiled merrily, the first time he did since finding out his family's death. "Sure!" He now knows his brother better, know why he killed them. Their deaths will be sad, and unforgivable, but it's the past now._

"_Arigatou, otouto...-chan" He covered Yoh's eyes, letting his younger brother drift back into sleep so that they can both wake up._

When Yoh woke up, he doesn't feel morose anymore. Sure he's sad about the loss, but he's not self-pitying over it anymore.

_I feel so much better, even before it all started, since you're alive now, onii…-chan…_

To be continued…

* * *

Gomen nasai – "I am very sorry" 

A/N: Wow…the angst par is so short…maybe it shouldn't be under angst at all. Well, I know the angst doesn't come until chapter 5, but the fic is shorter than I expected. The chapter after the next will definitely be the last one, and then there will be an epilogue and some side stories about Hao meeting the X-Laws.

I have no intention of making a sequel. If you want one and demands it, you'll have to wait a while for me to think up a plot line. After all, a rushed fic won't be a good fic, not for me, at least; but I will talk more about that in the last chapter.

**Reviewers:**

sweetsorrowthrougheternity: It's true that Hao's personality has always been a mystery...thanks for the review! I hope you had a good vacation XD.

Kaoru Gal: Let's all go on a hunt one day for one of those things XD (j/k, we'll never find it).

12uly: Thanks for the compliment! To say the least, I wasn't really satisfied with the angst...it sucked in my opinion, but if you liked it...-glomps- As for blueberries...they are bluish, hence the name, but they're actually more purplish when ripe. For any food in the world that's naturally completely blue...doesn't exist as far as I know XD.

Leuv: Well, Opacho...traveled to Japan because she's too ashamed to stay in America after she betrayed Hao, I suppose, but later she realizes that she needs to apologize, and is on her way back to America...? That'll be the reason for now XD.

Little-Anna-Chan: Yay, a new supporter! Thanks XD. Here's an update.

Lost to Reality: Haha XD. Aww...-embarrassed-...I'm flattered, thanks XD.

**Coming up next**: Taking a Break

"Um…Yoh…?"——"Hai?"——"I think something's wrong with the stuff."—— "What did you put in there that made it like that?" —— "You know, Yoh, this thing looks better burned." (This is just a little humor that I decided was very funny in the next chapter)

Well, thanks everyone for the support. I would be uber happy if you guys can REVIEW.


	10. Taking a Break

**Readers, I want you to note something**. During the course of this chapter, Anna will be reading a letter from Yoh, and there will be some bold-faced words in it. Those are the mistakes that Yoh made, intentional mistakes. Since he always sleep in class, I assume that he will make some mistakes, plus he was writing it very fast. For those who do not get the pun, I will explain it in the A/N at the end.

Summary: "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah - narration

"Blah blah" - dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _- thoughts

**Nantoka Naru**

Chapter Eight: Taking a Break

(**A/N**: Sorry, readers, they don't meet in this one...well they do, in the very very end. But this chapter is just a chapter of randomness. Sorry for the disappointment, but don't kill the authoress until WD is done please, then you can kill. I'm sure everyone will kill me anyways for the WD ending...XD)

Yoh sat up in his futon. He looked at his alarm clock, and found that it's a little past 3:30.

_Whoa…it's way early…Well, can't go back to sleep…I'm too excited that onii-chan is coming._

He got dressed quickly and silently slid open his door, exiting without making so much as a creak, and closed it just as silently as he opened it. The brunette tiptoed quietly around the inn, careful not to wake anyone up.

Having nothing else to do, he decided to run his morning laps ahead of time. Adjusting his headphones so that he can be listening to it while he run, he went to the door and slid on his sandals. Just when he's about to open the door, he suddenly remembered something.

"Oh yeah, better not forget…" he muttered to himself and slid off the sandals, heading towards his room.

As soon as he finished doing what he had wanted to, Yoh went back to the front door and found, on the small side table, a note from his father. "Back to Izumo to take care of the house." It said. Yoh smiled slightly. _I wonder if they'll hate me for forgiving him..._ He went out of the inn and stretched, breathing in the fresh morning air. The cold breeze felt nice on his skin as the wind caressed his hair.

Tying them up in a ponytail, Yoh went down the usual path of his laps. He felt an extra strength from restlessness, and ran off faster than before.

* * *

Anna woke up at 4:25, her usual time, in order to wake Yoh up at 4:30. She yawned and rubbed her eyes and went toward the kitchen to gather her 'Yoh-waking' materials. 

After she got her necessities of pan and ladle, she headed toward Yoh's room. When she arrived at her fiancé's bedroom, however, she found a note on his door. She pulled it off the tape that it was on and went to the hallway window, getting the little amount of light she could from the dim dawn.

_Dear Anna,_ the note started.

_Dear Anna,_

_I know that **you've be** worried about me lately, and I'm sorry that I caused such **worriness** in you. I am much better now, and I hope that you will betoo soon. _

_I know that **youll** be coming to wake** up me** for my laps at 4:30, and surely you will be **worryed** when you found me gone. I just want **to** you to know that I have gone to my laps early, so you needn't worry._

_Also, I feel the need to **letyou** know that Hao is coming **soon** later today. I hope you understand that I do not intend to fight him, for whatever the reasons. There's a lot more to be desired of our maturity if we let the death of our friends and family get to us. I'm sorry **I** been acting quite **bad-ishly**, and that I had gotten everyone's spirits down(no pun intended; okay maybe a little)._

_See you later,_

_Yoh_

Anna laughed slightly at all the mistakes he made; she can't believe that he even know the words 'pun' and 'maturaity'. Her eyes then softened at the letter. She is glad that Yoh is so much better now, and wishes that Hao doesn't cause his gloominess to rise again when they meet. _Hopefully_, she thought, _Hao will not provoke my fiancé_ _with taunts_.

She clutched the letter to her chest and closed her eyes in thought. After a while, she opened them again and, still clutching the letter, decided to go back to sleep instead of waking the others up like she usually does, after putting away the unused pan and ladle.

* * *

Jun woke up, feeling more refreshed than usual. She looked at the clock beside her futon and saw that it's already seven. Wondering why Anna didn't wake them up today, she went to the itako's room and found her still sleeping. Deciding to go make breakfast as everyone will wake up soon, she made her way toward the kitchen. 

When she got to the kitchen, however, she heard the familiar sound of the stove cooking and a soft humming of a happy melody. Wondering who would be up at this hour cooking, she went and saw Yoh, headphones over his years, stirring a pot of 'something' on the stove.

_Now that's unusual…Yoh usually doesn't come back until after eight. He certainly looks a lot better, though. I'm glad. He had seemed very down even though he's laughing and smiling._

"Morning, Yoh." she greeted, snapping Yoh from his distracted state as he stopped humming and pushed his earphones behind his ears. He gave that signature smile of his, a genuinely happy one. "Morning, Jun."

Jun stepped inside the kitchen, worried if Yoh is cooking anything inedible. "So…you got back unusually early today. Or did you just not run since Anna didn't go wake you up?"

Yoh gave his innocent smile and shook his head. "Iie, I got up earlier today and went to run ahead of time. I left Anna a note, she probably saw it and decided to go back to sleep."

"And the reason for your cooking is…?" The two turned to Ren, who is leaning against the door frame.

The brunette waved a hand. "Ohayou, Ren."

"What are you doing here, Ren?" his sister asked. Ren gave a quick "hmph" and went to the fridge.

"Getting milk," he said getting out three bottles, "and don't ignore my question."

The katana-using shaman looked blank for a moment, then realization dawned upon him. "Oh, you mean the cooking. Well, I got back from my laps at 6:43, and decided that I should cook for you guys to make up for causing you trouble." He put a hand behind his head and laughed in his carefree way, his other hand still stirring whatever is inside the pot.

Ren finished each bottle of his the milk in one gulp. "Well, I see that you're getting better." He went over to the pot of 'something'. "Is that thing even edible?" He points to a section of the 'substance' that's a greenish-yellow color, with red dots in the middle.

Yoh looked at where he was pointing. "It's…supposed to be. I don't know…"

"You don't know?" Horohoro's voice came from the door way and they all turned, seeing the Ainu standing there, wearing only his boxers. Jun quickly headed away.

"What are you doing here, you baka! Go put some clothes on!" Ren yelled pulling his Kwan Dao out of no where, waving it in a threatening gesture.

The blunette, still sleepy, obviously does not sense the danger. "Well, I heard voices and decide to come check it out and…oh…" he rubbed his eyes and looked down. "No wonder I feel so cold."

He barely had time to finish before he narrowly dodged the thrust of the tongari-haired boy's Kwan Dao, oversouled and all. "Wai! Okay, okay, I'm going!" He dashed off afterwards, Ren chasing him to the door then turned back.

Yoh's laughing and Jun is finally able to turn back. She glanced and saw the pot…

"Um…Yoh…?" she poked the younger shaman, who wiped away a tear of laughter and turned to the Dao shi. "Hai?"

Jun points to the 'food'. "I think something's wrong with the stuff."

Ren approached and Yoh turned to his food. Indeed, there's something wrong with it. The 'substance' is bubbling…well, large bubbles, parts of it is on fire, however that works, and the things in it are _changing color_, constantly, and a lot of colors at once. It's going from greenish-yellow with red dots to pink poke-dotted yellow to bluish purple and so on.

Chaos ensued for the next five minutes as the three shamans desperately tried to keep the 'stuff' inside the pot and close the fire, stopping it from exploding on them, and restrain Horohoro, who had come back fully dressed (thankfully according to Jun), from tasting the 'substance' out of curiosity while it's still changing color.

After some time, things finally calmed down, the kitchen in a complete and total mess (Anna would kill them for sure). The four crowded around the pot, seeing the result of all that.

"What did you put in there that made it like that?" Ren asked Yoh, both of them breathless from the 'battle' with the 'thing' inside the pot.

Yoh rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Ehehe…I'm not really sure…I just added whatever looks edible in it with water and hoping that it'll come out as a nice stew."

Jun stared at the new 'stuff'. "You know, Yoh, this thing looks better burned." She said, incredulous.

And indeed it does. The former 'greenish-yellow with red dots' thing in the pot is now a rich tanned color, similar to potato soup, and there are random white and orange things floating in it.

Before anyone else could say anything else, Horohoro scooped up the substance with a spoon that he got during the chaos and fed himself the 'stuff'. The other three look at him in shock, wondering if they should call an ambulance right now and will it make it in time.

"Hey, this is stuff is not half bad!" the Ainu said, and proceeded to get more.

This got Yoh's curiosity as well, and he got a spoon, feeding himself his own 'creation'. "Hey, Horo's right, it's pretty good after it got burned (If it can be count as burnt at all)!"

The Tao siblings stared at the two, then looked at each other, nodded, and got spoons themselves. "Wow, it's actually not bad. We can serve it for breakfast." Jun said, more incredulous than before.

"As long as no one finds out what it _had_ been." Ren commented. The others nodded in agreement. "Good thing it hadn't stayed pink."

"Well, we better clean the place up before we die under Anna's wrath." Yoh said, looking around, the others concurring quickly.

After a while of brushing, dusting, sweeping, and putting away things, the kitchen finally looked sparkling.

Pilika came in then, looking dazed and sleepy. "Onii-chan, is something wrong? I heard noises." Pilika's room is the one closest to the stairs.

"Nothing's wrong, Pilika." He said. Then Jun started pushing the boys out of the kitchen.

"Okay, boys, run along now. I've got to make breakfast. Only one stew's not enough. We've wasted enough time as it is.

She then turned to Pilika. "Pilika, can you help me?" She asked the blue-haired girl, who nodded and entered, at the same time as the boys leaving, causing them to trip over each other in an attempt to squeeze through the small door way.

Then all of them tried to get up at the same time, resulting in a lot of ruckus until a _THUD_ was heard. They turned to the side, and saw that the sliding door had fallen down, right on top of the incoming Kyouyama Anna.

The four scrambled up, finally getting the space to from the fallen door, and quickly got the door off of the now-fuming itako. Pilika quickly went inside to help Jun, who sighed and shook her head, getting to work as the boys propped the broken door against the wall of the main hall.

If auras can kill, Anna Kyouyama's deadly presence as she got up would have destroyed the three boys on the spot a thousand times over, body and soul.

"Ren, Horo, _Yoh_," She said in a quiet voice, the calm before the storm.

"Y-Yes, your Majesty the beautiful and flawless Queen Kyouyama Anna-sama?" Yoh tried. The other two nodded in agreement.

_SMACK! _One. _SMACK! _Two._ SMACK! _Three. Guess sweet-talking didn't work.

The blonde's legendary left quckly sent the three flying out the inn door, breaking that one as well, and into the tree on the outside, its huge green-dotted blue fruits(sounds familiar?) falling down and hitting each of them on the head, making them see stars.

"AND FIX THE DOORS!" Anna' angry voice shouted from the inside.

By then, Faust and Eliza had come out, hearing the distracting noise outside. "Sure is a lively morning, isn't it, Eliza?" The doctor commented to his beloved, who nodded in agreement.

"Well, Yoh certainly seemed much better, compared to before." She commented.

Yoh shook his head and got up, then flashed a grin. "Sorry for worrying you guys."

Ren had shaken his head as well and regained consciousness, but Horo, who fell on the Chinese shaman, had not, resulting in a very angry Ren.

"Get off!" Ren pushed Horo, which caused the Ainu to gain consciousness, but cranky from being yelled at. "What are you yelling for? It's not my fault!"

Ren stood up after Horohoro did, and dusted himself off. "Of course it is your fault, you baka Ainu."

"What did you say?" Horo waved his fist angrily.

The purple-haired shaman picked up his Kwan Dao "You heard me."

"You want to fight?" Horohoro got his snowboard from out of nowhere behind him.

The Chinese boy raised his Kwan Dao. "With pleasure."

The ice shaman blasted ice along with a wave of cold wind at Ren, and Manta, the unfortunate boy who just happens to arrive at the worse time possible, got frozen.

"Ahhhhh! Manta!" Yoh ran to the short haired blonde, picked him up, and ran into the inn. Ren and Horo looked blank for a moment, then quickly resumed their fight.

Yoh ran into the kitchen and found a boiling pot of water. Without a second thought, he threw the frozen Manta into it. Pilika looked over and gasped. "That's for boiling eggs!"

The brunette smiled and waved it off. "It's just until Manta defrosts"

Pilika pouted. "Fine."

The ice around the short genius quickly melted, and the unfortunate boy quickly jumped out of the boiling water. "Wahh…Yoh are you trying to kill me?"

His best friend gave him a carefree smile. "Ahaha…sorry Manta…"

Jun then came and threw the eggs in water, and before anyone can say anything, went back to chopping vegetables. Yoh shrugged and dragged Manta outside, leaving Pilika to panic over the 'Manta-tainted' water.

When they went out, he found Ren and Horo unconscious again, this time each is under a different tree. According to Lyserg who had just got up and went out hearing the noise, Anna had gotten tired of their fight and rewarded them with another two punches.

Yoh laughed heartedly, but quickly shut up when Anna gave him a stare. He smiled innocently. Anna then did the unexpected. She offered Yoh a _kind_ smile. The brunette was shocked at first, but returned it. That's when Pilika came out and called everyone in for breakfast.

* * *

"Where's Mikihisa-san?" The question came out of nowhere. Lyserg had looked around and found the elder Asakura missing. 

"Ah, he went back home to clean up the house," Yoh nonchalantly answered. "I saw a note he left when I went running this morning." Everyone stared at him surprised. "What?" He asked the group.

"Nothing," they muttered. They had thought that Yoh would be either sad talking about it or just avoid the topic completely, but his usual carefree tone apparently says otherwise. They are happy for him, and they all resumed eating.

Breakfast then proceeded peacefully. That is, until our favorite Ainu, Horohoro, called out in an exasperated voice, "Pilika, you cooked the eggs, right? There's something wrong with it!"

Jun had a worried look on her face. "Really? All I did was boil it." She got one herself and tasted it. "The taste's a bit off, I wonder why…"

"IT WAS YOH!" Pilika's sudden outburst caught everyone's attention. "Huh?"

Pilika continued her outburst. "HE THREW A FROZEN MANTA INTO THE WATER!" Everyone turned to Manta.

"I do remember jumping out of boiling water…" Manta reminisced, trailing off. The gaze then turned on Yoh.

Yoh rubbed the back of his head. "Ehehehe…sorry?" he tried. He seems to be doing that a lot.

Anna, who had already ate one and a half eggs, got up, and loomed over Yoh. "Ehehehe…" Yoh laughed nervously.

Yoh then finished breakfast with some nasty bruises on his face. "Ouch" can be heard from every bite he ate. He managed, somehow, to finish.

As soon as they finished, Yoh stood up. "Where are you going?" Horohoro asked through a mouthful of food.

"Aa, I'm going to go wait for someone outside." He said, going out the room and turns toward the main door.

Anna stood up too. "You aren't going to bring your katana, just in case?" At that, everyone choked on whatever they were eating.

"That won't be necessary." Her fiancé smiled. "We won't fight."

"He's going to meet Hao?" Ren was the first one to recover from his fit of coughing.

Lyserg stood up. He wasn't eating when Anna said that. "I'll go with you." Everyone took their turn to recover from choking and nodded, standing up as well.

Outside, a breeze picked up, billowing the group's hair and clothing as the wait went on silently.

"Yoh-dono, are you sure that you don't need Harusame?" Amidamaru asked in concern. "I'm sure that devil will…" Yoh cut him off and smiled up at his spirit. "Daijoubu, Amidamaru." He turned back. "Oh look, there he is right now."

Hao stepped toward the inn quietly, actually willing to walk through the crowd for once. Flying in would be too intimidating, and he doesn't want intimidating right now. He approached the inn and saw nine other people waiting with his younger twin.

He saw a blonde girl in red bandana that made his anger boil, and realized that she must be another Asakura that he missed. He quickly brushed the feeling off, however, as he got nearer to the group, to his brother.

When he got there, most of the people had the look of pure hatred on their face. _They had good reasons to, too._ Hao knew without having to read their minds. He flashed them a gentle smile, not an evil smirk, that surprised them.

"Hello, otouto-chan. I've come just as I promised."

To be continued…

* * *

Iie – no  
Ohayou – "good morning" (tell me if I spelled it wrong, 'cuz I'm not sure.)  
Daijoubu – "don't worry" 

A/N: Wai! Sorry for the uber long wait. I've dying under piles of homework, volunteer work, and random tasks lately and my mind is spinning...Anyways, I hope that I didn't lose all the readers...-.-

The pun that Yoh mentioned in the letter to Anna, is that when he said "spirits", he meant everyone's spirits as in their enthusiasm, but also their spirits as in Bason and Amidamaru, and so on, so for. That's just a lame pun that came to my mind when I was typing 'spirits'.

-.- The gray line is not working...why isn't it working! I had to copy and paste...

I seem to be jumping around the mood a lot. It's from humor to angst to suspense to drama to humor again and so on, so for. I just thought I'd lighten the mood in this chapter, and the events came totally randomly. 

I'm pretty sure that the next chapter will be the last, and the fic will end after I add side stories. Thanks everyone for the support. There will be an epilogue... a really bad one, unfortunately.

**Reviewers**:

l2uly: It'll take longer but...BREATH! You need to breath! Sorry for the random chappie, but the next chapter will be plotty (?) , I promise! (O.o plotty?)

Lost to Reality: You don't want Yoh's friends to accept Hao! Oo...Oh well, you can input that in your story, whichever one or a new one...XD. Poor Manta...I think I left him out in my story...he's like that figure in the shadow that pops out occasionally or something...yeah. Here's the chapter, now don't kill Manta...or try not to make a mess when you do!

Kaoru Gal: Er...sorry to disappoint you, but...er...yeah. But they will meet in the next chapter, I promise! XD

Leuv: Well, Hao's true personality has always been a bit of an enigma throughout the series. I think I have the right, as a fanfic authoress, to play around with it a little bit (a lot) without going OOC...XD.

LadiesOfDestructionChaosMayhem: I hope I spelled that all right. About the sequel...I'll need inspirations for a plotline. I mean, I wouldn't want to make the story bad just because I want it up ASAP. IF there is a sequel, I'll try to make in twincest. I mean, I love that pairing, so I wouldn't mind writing it, but I wouldn't want to destroy it overall with my bad romance-writing skills. Thanks for the complimentj, by the way.

Little-Anna-Chan: Er...yes, they meet...finally...at the very very end. I must have disappointed a lot of people with that...sorry.

**Coming up next**: Nantoka Naru

"Remember what you said before about a second chance?"——"Yeah. Why?"—— "Well, I'm giving it to you."——"Do I really deserve it?"——"Of course."

Again, thanks for reading this story, whether you reviewed or not. I would really appreciate it if you review though, so please REVIEW.


	11. Nantoka Naru

I just suddenly realized that I can add the X-Laws into the chapter! The inspiration came while I was writing it. They won't play a big part, but I guess I can call it squeezing them inside the little fic that I have. This is NOT FOR X-LAWS FANS!! PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS **NOT **FOR X-LAWS fans!

Summary: **Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah - narration

"Blah blah" - dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _- thoughts

**Nantoka Naru**

Chapter Nine: Nantoka Naru

The group stared surprised at the long-haired shaman before them. No mocking tone, no malicious eyes, no intimidating air, and not even an evil smirk! (A/N: I know, everyone loves the evil smirk)

"Aa, onii-chan." Yoh answered lazily.

Hao didn't have the time to respond, for at that moment, Lyserg had rushed forward. "Hao! I will never forgive you for what you did, no matter how much you try to be innocent!"

The green-haired shaman quickly released Morphine on his 'enemy', the wires trailing gracefully behind the pendulum in which the tiny spirit sat.

"I'm Sorry." The pendulum stopped right before Hao's face.

"What did you say?" Lyserg asked, confusion apparent on his face.

Hao closed his eyes to the dangerous, not to mention pointy, crystal in front of his face. "Well, I know I killed Yoh's friends and his family, or rather, _our_ family, and I know I was wrong. I was pushed to the edge by confusion on top of my emotions. I figured I could at least apologize."

The dowser's eyes narrowed as he suddenly pushed Morphine forward, surprising Hao as he barely dodged it, the pendulum cutting his face(A/N: Not the face!). "I wasn't talking about that, but that too. I was talking about what you did to my parents. You think a simple 'sorry' can repent for what you've done?"

Yoh was at the side, wanting to cut in but found no chance to. Lyserg was angry, and he kept his attacks up as he was talking. Yoh was relieved both because Hao was dodging them perfectly fine _and_ because his older brother apparently doesn't intend to attack.

"Well, actually," it was a rhetorical question, but the older shaman answered anyways, "I wouldn't know if a 'sorry' is enough, since I don't know what I did to your parents."

The wire stopped again, but this time, it went back to its owner. "What did you say?" Lyserg was not the only one who said it. Ren, as well as Horo, Pilika, and Manta all did. Faust stare in silent shock and Jun just wondered siliently while the spirits tumbled over when their masters stopped in the middle of doing the oversoul.

Yoh went forward and sighed heavily. "I wanted to tell you guys, but you attacked him to fast." He went and stood next to Hao. "Onii-chan lost his memories."

The others stayed in shocked silence as Hao looked at Yoh, confused. "Who are these people, Yoh?"

He then turned to Hao. "These people are my friends. This is Ren and his sister Jun, Horo, Pilika, Faust, Eliza," Yoh points at them as he spoke. "Lyserg was the one that attacked you, that's my best friend Manta, and that's my fiancée Anna."

Hao nodded understandingly, and his anger for Anna vanished. There's no way someone as young as her could be responsible for his loneliness.

Silence took over for a moment, then Anna stepped forward. "And you couldn't tell us this before we came out because…?" she questioned.

Yoh puts a hand behind his head. "Ahaha…I….kind of forgot?" He explained sheepishly.

Before Anna, or anyone, for this matter, can do anything, however, Hao's eyes suddenly widened and he pushed Yoh roughly away.

The other shamans looked in surprise as they pulled out their weapon. Ren growled angrily. "I knew you're-" but before he could finish, a glint caught his eye as a huge sword came seemingly out of nowhere and grazed behind Hao, cutting the poncho, leaving a big gash in his back, and landed, its point burying itself in the ground.

"Onii-chan!" Yoh saw what happened after he turned around and went to Hao.

"That's…an angel's sword?" They quickly recognized it as Faust voiced it.

Then there was a light and the X-Laws made their entrance in their usual flashy way…well, as flashy as two people can manage, with Jeanne in the middle, out of the Iron Maiden, and Marco a few steps behind to her left, the Angel Mikael trailing behind its master.

The angel picked up its sword as Yoh went to help Hao, who's still bleeding badly from the wound, from the ground. "Why'd you do that?" he asked them angrily, and anger is an expression that does not appear often on the laidback shaman's face.

The silver-haired shaman closed her eyes calmly. "We had thought that the devil Hao was finally done justice, but apparently not. It seems that you, Asakura Yoh, had accepted him, and therefore you are now part of his evil and must be punished."

Marco pushed up his glasses. "That sword was aimed directly at your heart from behind, but cutting Hao instead really has been a very good twist of events." He is not wearing his X-Laws coat, but only the uniform and his short-shorts (A/N: yep, the short-shorts crept me out too).

Ren stepped forward angrily, fury rising for the first time on behalf of a wounded Hao, since he _had_ just saved Yoh from certain death, whether he caused it or not. "Hao is good now! How can you judge a person by his past?"

Jeanne's composure did not waver. "He was evil, and his evil deeds are always going to be there, whether it's in the past or present. His sins cannot be erased."

The wounded brunette finally had a chance to look up from his support on his younger brother. "You're not very nice people, are you?" The shock on the maiden and her follower's faces, as Hao's tone indicated that he doesn't know them, were evident, and would've been one to laugh at had the situation not been so serious. "You made it sound like I try to take over the world or something…devil, evil, sin…"

The others looked at him. "Have I?" he turned to Yoh, who slowly nodded. "Oh, then never mind." He slumped back down from exhaustion, but still managed to stand.

"What has happened to the demon?" It was more of a demand for answer rather than a question.

Yoh glared at the taller shaman. "Well, Marco, to answer your question in six simple words, Hao. Lost. His. Memories…" The lazy shaman said plainly.

"That's only four. Can you not count?" The angel-using shaman snorted arrogantly.

Yoh smiled an innocent smile that totally does not match what he said next. "…You idiot." He finished. "There, six." His friends, well, the male part at least, smirked. Anna stared smugly, Jun chuckled, Eliza smiled, and Pilika snickered.

Anger rising, Marco was just about to attack when Jeanne stopped him. "what if he's faking it?"

The short-haired brunette gave one of his lazy smiles. "He's not. He was a lot more sincere in the dream than he was here, probably he's just embarrassed." At this his brother shifted. "I'm right here, Yoh." He glared.

The maiden was not convinced. "That does not prove anything and Hao will be a devil no matter what (A/N: where'd she get _that_ conclusion?). Attack, Marco!" she pointed at Yoh, as Hao apparently is just an easy target now, and taking care of Yoh would solve the problem once and for all.

Yoh, occupied with his bleeding brother under him, does not have hands to protect himself, nor does he have time to put his brother down and do oversoul.

At that moment, however, Ren and the others came out front and made a barrier of spirits in front of him, already in oversoul mode. Yoh looked dramatically touched. "You guys…"

"Well," Horo said, eyes not leaving the enemy, "he did just save you from certain death. That much is already enough to convince me."

Ren turned. "As simple as that idiot's way of thinking is (Horo: Hey!), I can't help but agree with him. Saving your life when you destroyed his dream is not something the real Hao would do. He would've just pretended not to notice or smirked."(Hao: I was really evil before, wasn't I? Others: -nod-)

"Besides, Marco's target is you." Lyserg smiled. "Also, when I was attacking him, he didn't even try to attack me. He just dodged."

"Hmph," Marco snorted, "then I'll just have to cut you all up now, don't I?"

Mikael swung his sword downwards in command of his master, but before it even got to the shield of shamans, it was caught by the Spirit of Fire. All eyes turned on Hao, who had now pushed away from Yoh and staggered up.

"No one," his eyes flared, "NO ONE, tries to hurt my otouto!" He steadied himself. (A/N: Protective brother mode on?)

Yoh ran up to him. "No, Hao! You're hurt, you have to rest." He urged his wounded brother, who's still bleeding profusely, as can be seen from behind due to the cut poncho.

Hao shrugged it off. "I'll be fine. I'll just finish this in a while…" he raised a hand.

"Don't kill him!" Yoh begged. Hao blinked back at his younger brother and smiled. "I won't. Not if you don't want me to."

He then turned back and gets ready to attack. Anna then came up beside him. Her simple words sent shivers down the back of three shamans behind her. "Slap him, _hard_."

The long-haired shaman looked at her blankly for a moment, then nodded. Spirit of Fire's right hand still clinging to the sword, he gave a mental instruction, and its left hand rose, using a move that one would never seen coming from the fearsome creature, born from the Great Spirits itself.

_SMACK!_ Spirit of Fire's version of the legendary left sent the angel flying, and Marco collapsed on the ground, unconscious. "Marco!" Jeanne went to him, and seeing that he's still alive, slowly dragged him away. "I'll get you for this, Asakura Hao!"

The said shaman did nothing, just smiled and waved. When the two were gone, he finally gave in to exhaustion from blood loss and collapsed. "Hao!" cried voices of few people. They got out of oversoul mode and went to him.

"Bring him to Yoh-kun's room." Faust instructed. Yoh and Ren lifted the collapsed shaman and they did as the doctor instructed.

* * *

"Will he be alright?" Yoh hovered over his unconscious brother, who's rested on his futon, anxiously. 

Faust looked at Yoh. "he's lost a lot of blood, plus his over exertion in insisting to fight. He'll need a lot of days to rest, but he'll be fine."

The older Asakura is lying on his back, his wound just bandaged. His poncho has been taken off, and is nowhere to be seen. "Is the gash going to leave a mark?" Jun asked, remember the nasty gash she saw from earlier.

Faust examined the bandages, making sure it's tight enough before he answered. "Probably not. The wound was deep, but it wasn't deep enough to leave a scar. His unconsciousness is caused by his refusal to rest and the over blood-loss."

The many people in the small room is beginning to make it hot, and Faust told them to leave before his patient starts sweating and catching a cold. They left, Pilika opening the window a little bit to let the air in.

The group hovered in the hall. "Where's Anna?" Lyserg asked, not seeing the blonde itako anywhere.

"She'll show up when she feels like it." Horo casually put his hands behind his head. "Not that I would miss her and her slaps though…" Horo was cut off by a cold voice

"I heard that." As soon as the Ainu turned around, he was slapped into the room opposite of Yoh's. The blonde itako is holding an article of clothing.

"Oh, there you are, Anna." Jun turned toward the blonde. "Hey, what is that?" she indicated the piece of cloth.

Anna held it up. It was Hao's poncho. "I sewed it. I figured that he don't have any other articles of clothing to wear for the moment, and he might not want to wear your, Yoh." She turned to her fiancé, who has a look of pure shock on his face. "What?"

The brunette stared at the poncho, fixed and good as new. "You….You can SEW, Anna?" he asked in disbelief.

The itako girl glared at him. "You want to join that idiot?" she indicated the ice shaman, lying unconscious in Manta's room, having flew right into the short blonde's collection of encyclopedias that he brought with him when moving in after hearing of Tamao and Ryu's death.

"er…No…" Yoh whimpered.

"Then shut up." Said his fiancée, who then went into the room, and came out after a while, the article of clothing gone from her arm. "You can continue your training while we're waiting. The rest of you do…whatever." She dragged him away.

Pilika piped up and went into Manta's room. "Nii-chan, you're training too, come."

Jun laughed at the way Pilika is holding her brother by the ear. "Why don't you go with them, Ren?"

Her brother shrugged. "Might as well." He followed.

"I'll just watch." Lyserg went in the same direction, Manta and Jun following.

* * *

A certain long-haired shaman blinked his eyes as he slowly woke. It was just like in the desert…dark, silent, and painful. The wound on his back nagged at him, and it hurts when he shifted. 

When he tried to get up, he felt something soft beside him in the futon, grabbing onto his trailing auburn strands. He looked down, and saw a face identical to his, breathing softly as he slept. Hao's eyes softened as he gently pulled his hair out from the younger one's grasp. He saw his poncho beside him on the other side, in perfect condition, stitched and all. He picked it up silently and put it on, then got to his feet.

_I can no longer stay here. I only came here to meet Yoh. I do not belong with him and his happy group of friends. I don't know what I did before. But this comfort, this happiness…I do not deserve them, not after what I've done._

He shrugged off the feeling of regret and, silently sliding open the door and closing it softly behind him, he crept his way downstairs and toward the door. He paused wondering if he should leave a note or something.

_No. No one is going to miss me anyways. I don't need to read their mind to know that._

He felt that he can slightly control his Reishi now, and he wants to use it as little as possible. Not throwing another backward glance, he quietly slid open the main door and stepped out, sliding it close as the cold night air caressed his countenance.

He left the warmth of assurance given by the inn and its occupants, and is about to set off down the path when a voice called to him.

"Aniki, where are you going? You should be in bed. Faust said that you need many days of rest." the soft voice of his twin caused him to turn. Standing there in his yukata is Yoh, rubbing one eye as sleep attempts to make him go back to his dreams. He looked a lot younger now, like a small boy wondering why his older brother is leaving his sides.

Hao's eyes softened at the sight. "Away from here to where I belong." He answered quietly.

"And where is that?" The younger brunette inquired, not wanting his older brother to leave, trying to find an excuse to make him stay, but the older shaman did not notice that particular desire.

Hao looked up at the stars. "The land of solitude that is the only place I deserve to be in." he answered calmly, a hint of his loneliness showing in his voice.

"Why? Why not stay?" Yoh's tone sounded a bit desperate now, but Hao, with all his intelligence and keen senses, could not tell why his brother would be desperate to know the answer. "No one should be alone. That's too sad."

The older Asakura turned back to the younger one and raised an eyebrow. "Because, I don't know what I did before, but from the reaction that I saw of everyone that I've met, I must've done something horrible, something unforgivable; something that doesn't allow me to deserve this happiness and kindness that you're giving out so freely."

Yoh went up and hugged him gently, the warm gesture surprising the older shaman. The embrace is gentle, strong enough to give warmth but soft enough that doesn't give pain to his wounded back. "Yoh?"

The said boy looked up. "Remember what you said before about a second chance?" he asked, the sudden question surprising his twin yet again.

Hao looked down at the kind orbs. "Of course." He answered. "Why?"

"Well, I'm giving it to you. I believe that everyone else has, too." Yoh silently whispered, the gentle words carried away by the wind and fading into nothingness.

Silence reigned for the moment as Hao mused over this. "Do I really deserve it?" that question was more for himself than his twin, who answered anyways.

"Sure you do; as much as everyone else." Yoh reassured.

"Even the past me?"

"Of course." The younger shaman smiled up at his older twin.

Again silence as Hao stared down at his brother, who smiled back in return. After a while, the older Asakura's gaze returned to the stars. "I guess I'll give it a try." He turned back to his twin and smiled, who in turn smiled wider, if that's even possible. Then both went back inside for some much-needed sleep.

"Are you sure your friends will accept a murderer like me? What if they try to kill me in my sleep?" the older Asakura asked as they were entering the comfort of the inn. He is still slightly hesitant about all this.

The younger brunette just shrugged off his twin's doubt and paranoia, giving the brightest smile he can give, lighting up the silent night.

"Nantoka naru sa."

To be continued…

* * *

A/N: MERRY CHRISTAHANNUZAA! Yes, I know the X-laws showing up is pure randomness. I was going to put up a side story on Hao meeting X-Laws after the next chapter, the Epilogue, but I didn't like what I wrote, so I guess no side story. As everyone should now, the X-Laws are being made fun of in this story; apparently they are the comic relief. So anyone who's in absolute support of them and cannot stand seeing them go down in shame, don't read it. I repeat, don't read the side story if you cannot stand letting the X-Laws be shamed. 

Not much to say about this one, except that it's pretty spontaneous…ideas pop up randomly throughout the whole story and it's just one big story made up by little fragments…well, yeah. I hope everyone enjoyed this. Personally, I liked the last part. Thanks for supporting me through the fic.

Oh and I realized that most of the humor in this fic ends up with Anna getting angry with someone. I don't know how that happened but I guess it just does…sorry about the flatness.

Without the side stories, I guess the next chapter aka the Epilogue would be the last. Thanks for staying with me through this story, reviewed or not.

**To my lovely Reviewers:**

Moocrest: I wonder what you were giong to say XD. Not that it matters as long as you review... Thank you -hugs-

l2uly: Ah, my ever loyal reviewer. You're welcome (?) I guess. Well, after this chapter there is an epilogue then it'll be all done! Yay XD

Little-Anna-Chan: Hope you liked it! I really think I could've done better but...I already posted it so...yeah. Hope it's good enough :)

Kha-chan: Sankyuu Here's the update (:

demonz8000: Haha maybe I overdid it with the letter? Hmmm... well, I guess there's another chapter coming up, but then that'll be the end, unless you people want the crack insanity side stories that I've come up with, which I doubt since...I did them while I was sugar-high and they don't make much sense to me anyways...Oh, and the gray lines, my computer broke down so now I'm using my dad's laptop, and the gray line works on here but never on my computer so...I think my comp was really disfuncional...-.-;; I'm not sure about a sequel, since I won't know what to make of it...hmm...maybe Hao regaining his memory? I'm not sure since I need a beginning, plot, and ending before I start a story, otherwise it'd never finish...-looks up- Wow that was the longest reply I've ever written...I love verbose commentors with many points to make XD. The longer the review, the longer the reply : )

Lost to Reality: O.O there goes Anna...(this authoress sometimes...often insults herself too, UNINTENTIONALLY) XD nice weird mood. Well, here's DA update!

**Coming up next**: Epilogue

"Well, if you want to survive in our house, then you should follow the rules."——"One, smile more,"——"Two, Anna-sama's words are law."——"Think you can do that?"——"I can try."

Well, it's been going well so far and I would really appreciate it if everyone can REVIEW.


	12. Epilogue

Summary: **Character Death**. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah - narration

"Blah blah" - dialogue/monologue

_Blah blah _- thoughts

**Nantoka Naru**

Epilogue

It's been a year since that incident. Hao is living with them now, and everybody else chose to stay for the eventful everyday (they still have to pay the rent, of course).

This day, the group traveled to Hokkaido where Horohoro and Pilika had buried Ryu and Tamao. The next day, they'll go to Izumo. On Hao's Spirit of Fire, they can get there in one day.

The graveyard where their friends were buried is a small one. It is out in the wilderness, a good hour walk away from the nearest small village. Spirit of Fire dropped its master and his companions down beside the graveyard and dissipated, awaiting its next task.

"Not even their spirit is left…" Hao said regretfully. He quietly laid the wild flowers down on their small grave. "Not one trace of their existence…"

Yoh came up and put his arm around his shoulder. "That's not true, nii-chan." Hao turned to his otuoto. "They're existing right here," he points to the graves, "and living right here." The younger twin points to his heart, then Hao's. The older shaman smiled and nodded.

Ren made a face. "Oh stop this mushiness." That sentence got him a hard bop from Anna.

Horo turned and made a face at Ren. "You're just saying that because you felt the same way." He smirked.

"What!" Ren, flushed from embarrassment, took out his Kwan Dao and charged at the Ainu. Horohoro was ready for the Chinese shaman this time, and took out his snowboard. He wasn't, however ready for the pendulum that circle him and Ren. Apparently, neither was the saffron-eyed shaman, as the wire tightened and both were pulled together, their heads smacking into each others.

Lyserg then pulled his string back. "Stop this nonsense. We should respect the dead. At least act more decent in front of their graves."

Jun nodded in agreement. "Ren, as your sister, I am ashamed." She looked over to her kung-fu master mochirei who is paying respect to the graves with the other spirits.

Pilika also nodded. "Nii-chan, you should be ashamed."

The two shamans bowed their head darkly and joined with Faust, Eliza, and Manta to pay their respect, but not before they glared at each other.

Yoh then turned to them. "Let's go eat now, shall we?" Everyone agreed.

As soon as they got out of the graveyard, Horo and Ren are at it again.

"Come on, Ren, let's finish what we started." Horo taunted.

Ren snorted. "So immature, baka Ainu. All you ever think about is fight."

Horo is angry at being called a baka, but he held it back. "Hmph, you're just scared 'cuz I've been practicing harder than you, and you think that you're going to lose. I bet you were relieved that we didn't fight inside the cemetery."

Ren held back his urge to kill the blunette. "Why would I be scared of dim-witted sorry-excuse-for-a-shaman like you?"

Horo smirked. "At least I don't look or fight like a girl."

That pushed the purple-haired shaman over the edge. "I'll show you, you pedophile freak!" He took out his Kwan Dao yet again and called Bason.

"Who are you calling a pedophile you pathetic spoiled brat!" Horohoro took out his snowboard and called out his Koropokkoru spirit.

Before they both had a chance to do anything, though, two strong hands grabbed their heads and lifted them off the ground. Jun sighed and went to her little brother. "Don't you guys have enough yet?"

Ren pouted, something that he doesn't usually do. "But Nee-san, he started it." He talked in a childlike tone, surprising Jun as she told Pailong to put them down.

"That's no excuse for your childish behavior." Pilika came up to them. "Nii-chan, you come with me up front."

Yoh and Manta are chatting up front as Hao summoned the Spirit of Fire. They looked back as they hear a gradually louder "ow, ow, ow, ow, OW, OW, OWOWOWOWOW!" as Pilika dragged her brother up in a net, the older Ainu making dangerous fiction with the rocky ground. Smiling softly, they got up onto the Spirit of Fire, and as soon as they did, flew off in the direction of Izumo, way down south.

* * *

The next day, the group landed just outside Izumo. They headed toward the direction of the Asakura estate. The large door opened suddenly and Mikihisa stood there. "I thought you guys would come." 

Hao, who was in the front with Yoh, Manta, and Lyserg, fidgeted. "I…Uh…" he and Mikihisa hadn't met since the last time in Tokyo.

Mikihisa threw a quick look and his eyes softened, even though the mask doesn't show it. "Come on," he said gently. Hao looked up, hesitated, and nodded, following his younger brother.

"The cemetery's in the back, as always," the raven-masked man explained as he took the group inside. "Did you guys eat yet?"

Anna nodded respectfully. "Hai, ojii-sama. We ate just before we left."

Mikihisa led them to the back and turned to leave. "You are not coming with us, Mikihisa-san?" Jun asked, noticing his turned back.

"I've already paid my respect. I'll leave you young people alone." Then he left. Hao stared after him for a while, then followed the group.

"Whoa, this is huge, Yoh." Horo looked at the vast land spread before him.

Yoh looked over at the cuious Ainu. "We have a large family." He smiled.

The group stood at the graves with the names Youmei, Kino, and Keiko engraved on them. Anna went and put flowers down on Kino's grave, while Yoh did the same for Youmei and Hao for Keiko.

"Okay, we'll have a picnic here." Anna said as she turned to the group after each had paid their respect. Manta's eyes bulged. "He—Here? In the cemetery."

Yoh gave his best friend his lazy smile. "It'll be like eating with them." He indicated his family. Several of his ancestors had yelled at Hao when they first came, but after some explaining, they just accepted the truth quietly, relived at the change.

So Anna ordered the guys, excluding Faust for he is in a wheelchair, to set up the cloth for picnic while the girls, other than herself, got the food ready. Hao felt something near, but when he stood up to inspect it, Anna threw the core of an apple that she was eating at him. "Don't wander off until you're done."

"Hai, Anna…" Hao bent down to work. _Yoh told me that I asked Anna to be my wife; what could I have been thinking when I did that?_

Finally, all said and done, the group got down to eat. With Horo constantly trying to put mustard in Ren's milk, the said Chinese shaman trying to avoid that, Pilika talking amiably to Jun, Eliza feeding food to Faust, Yoh listening to his music and taking a nap as Manta talked with Lyserg while Anna is reading a book that she brought, Hao was able to sneak away and head toward the familiar presence that he felt.

As he approached a more secluded area, he saw, sitting under a tree, the familiar form of a short girl chomping on an unfamiliar fruit. The girl looked up and, seeing who is approaching, jumped up excitingly. "Hao-kun!"

Hao waved a hand at her, "hello, Opacho-chan." He smiled at the sight of his friend. "What are you doing here?"

Opacho went back to eating her fruit. "Waiting for Hao-kun." She said simply. "Opacho knows that Hao-kun's twin brother will come back here to visit his family, and hoped that Hao-kun will be here as well." She then smiled proudly. "Opacho practiced a lot after Hao-kun left, so that when Opacho sees Hao-kun Opacho wouldn't accidentally say 'Hao-sama'." Then she turned her attention back to her fruit.

Hao was slightly, only slightly, taken aback when he saw the fruit this time. _What is it this time?_ He seems to be distracted by those things a lot. The fruit this time is pink in a cube-ish shape, with white stripes running vertically down the fruit. The inside…is purple. A _deep,_ almost _blackish_ purple. Lime yellow dots are in the purple part of the fruit. Just looking at it makes Hao lose his appetite, but of course he wouldn't say that to the girl. Shaking the question as to whether the thing's even edible, he smiled instead.

"I told you we'd meet again. This proves that we're true friends."

Opacho nodded. "So, has Hao-kun reached the end of the road that chooses his life yet?"

Hao took a glance at Yoh's group, in the distance, and turned back. "Yeah. Have you?" he inquired after the small girl.

His friend was thoughtful for a moment. "Opacho doesn't know. Opacho had spent many of her life with Hao-sama, and now that Hao-sama is Hao-kun, Opacho is not sure if Opacho is living the life that she chose."

Most of that phrase confused Hao, what's with third person and all, but he smiled. He does understand one thing. "Wait."

Opacho watched as her friend went down to the main part of the cemetery, and saw him join Yoh and the others, some yelling on Anna's part, then everyone went back to what they were doing. Then she saw Hao gain their silence and said something. The group's reaction was in unison, from shock to confusion. Then Yoh smiled and said something, and everyone said different things. They all turned to Anna, who said something, and they went back to what they were doing. Opacho finished her fruit and got another one from the nearby tree as Hao approached.

"What was Hao-kun doing?" Opacho asked as he bit into the fruit. Hao looked at the fruit blankly with an expression of 'where did she get that?' before breaking into a smile. "Opacho-chan," he addressed the younger girl.

"Hmm?" She answered with a mouthful of the 'thing'.

The older shaman bent down. "Would you like to come home with me?" he asked.

Opacho's eyes widened. "Really?" she questioned, unbelieving.

Hao stood up and frowned. "What? Don't want to?" he said, slightly bothered.

The little girl jumped up and down in excitement. "Of course Opacho wants to. Opacho thinks that Opacho's path of life is to follow Hao-kun and Yoh-kun." As Hao smiled, Opacho suddenly remembered something and went up a nearby tree. Confused, Hao followed.

"Catch these please, Hao-kun." Hao barely had a time to respond before a blur of pink came down and he caught it hastily. On a closer inspection, he sees, incredulously, that it's the fruit that she was eating. _So that's where she got them._

The next five minutes involves Hao watching in terror as Opacho proceeded to throw down twenty more of those. She clampered down afterwards and looked in satisfaction. "That should be enough. Opacho will give those to Yoh-kun and his friends as presents for letting Opacho stay with them."

Hao smiled bitterly. "O-Okay…" then he puts the fruits down and puts Opacho on his shoulder. He picked up the fruits and walked toward the direction of the group.

* * *

Getting twenty-one of those resulted in the dinner back in Funbari Onsens consisted of an entire full-course meal made of the white-striped pink fruits. The messes of pink, white, dark purple, and little yellow dots resulting in most of them losing appetite. 

Ren is surprised that Jun can actually whip up something with those things, while said sister looks proudly at her creations. Lyserg has on a polite, accepting face while on the edge of barfing. Yoh's smile twitched and Manta scooted a little distance from the table. Anna just stared, hoping that it'll burn, while Faust pondered over whether he had seen this fruit in his 'doctor's guide to all edible and non-edible food' as Eliza edged closer to her husband. Hao just looked at the thing, wondering how Opacho can eat it. Pilika's face paled at it and Horohoro…took a huge spoonful of one of the dishes as Opacho proceeds to start eating. They had all said 'Itadakimasu' but no one else took anything. The group stared at Horohoro.

"What?" the Ainu looked at the group. "It might just be like the time when Yoh tried to cook us breakfast—mmm mmf mf mmf mmm…" Yoh, who just happen to sit next to the blue Ainu, quickly put up his hand to cover his mouth.

Anna glared at Yoh. "What do you mean?" the question was directed at the older blunette.

"Well," Horo pried Yoh's mouth away and jumped back when the short-haired brunette attempted again with a I-don't-want-to-die-yet look that the Ainu didn't notice. "The day when Hao came, Yoh had attempted to make a stew for us for causing us trouble, but you know what the original color was?"

Anna suddenly didn't want to know. Silence, as Opacho, oblivious to others' rejection of the fruit, kept on eating. After a moment, Ren told the answer that no one else asked for. "Greenish-yellow with red dots in them."

"No," Jun cut in to counter her brother as the others pondered, not remembering any greenish-yellow stew that day. "It was Pink poka-dotted yellow. Ren, have you forgotten its color since it was a year ago?" she argued.

Yoh, who finally managed to cup Horohoro's mouth, was aghast as Ren and Jun started recalling the incident as well. "It was a rich tanned color, remember? There was nothing wrong…" But Ren cut him off.

"No, nee-san. It was greenish-yellow to start with, and when it got burned once that baka Ainu disturbed us, it turned pink poka-dotted yellow, then bluish purple, then maroon colored with green stripes, then…"

Jun puts her right fist in her left palm. "That's right! When we finally calmed it down, it was a rich tanned color, just like Yoh said. Horo ate it, so we did too, and it was good so I decided that it can be served for breakfast."

Hao looked over at his younger brother. "That's a lot of color change there, otouto."

Lyserg smacked his palm on the table. "That's not the point there."

"The point is," Faust aided, "that we all put a whole bowl of that thing down our stomachs."

"I didn't." the onmyouji said calmly.

Anna quietly stood up and walked over to Yoh, who is now suffocating the blue-haired shaman with his hand over his mouth. "Yoh…"

"Ehehehe…Yes, Anna?" by then, Pilika had managed to stop Yoh from suffocating her brother, Manta had fainted from the thought of putting a bowl of that 'something' down his stomach, and Opacho had finished half a plate of everything, now watching the scene with undivided and curious attention.

Anna punched Yoh roughly so that he stumbled through the door and smacked against the wall, the blow rendering him unconscious. "It wasn't enough that you put that shorty into the water used to boil the egg, you had manage to make a stew that changed color until it looked edible?" She went back to her seat and started staring at the half-eaten dishes, hoping again that they'll burn.

Horo then proceed to put the spoonful that he got earlier into his mouth. The rest of the group stared at him. "It's not that bad. Here, try it." The Ainu then shoved a spoonful down Ren's throat, the Tao happening to sit next to him.

The Chinese shaman choked at the sudden intake and was about to kill Horo when he paused. "This really isn't that bad." The two then went on and got more.

The rest looked at one another, except Yoh who is unconscious and Opacho who is staring at the unconscious Yoh. Then Lyserg and Jun bravely got a spoonful themselves.

"Well, I'd say it's passable for food." Lyserg commented thoughtfully.

Jun chewed on the substance. "It'll need a little more flavor, but not bad."

Whoever that are left eyed one another and, throwing away whatever's left of their sanity, dug into the atrocious thing. It's not bad, they decided, but the look needs to be worked on. This thing can very well be mistaken for something poisonous.

Yoh lies unconscious through the whole meal.

* * *

Hao sat on the hill in the cemetery, gazing over the city. The afternoon wind softly graced his calm features as he leaned back against the tree he's sitting under. He heard someone approaching but didn't turn. He doesn't need to turn to know who it is. 

"Hey, onii-chan." The short-haired brunette came up next to his twin and sat down beside him.

"Hello, otouto." He glanced toward his younger brother. "What are they doing?"

"Well," Yoh lied down on the grass, "Ren is chasing Horohoro around, apparently about something Horo had said. Anna is watching her soaps, Lyserg went to buy who-knows-what he wanted, Jun and Pilika are making dinner. Manta is talking to Opacho, seemingly glad to find someone around his height. Faust and Eliza are strolling or whatever in the park."

"I see…" the short response was followed by a comfortable silence as they looked over the city at the reddish-orange sky of the afternoon. After a while, Yoh broke the silence.

"Hey Hao?" he called.

"Yeah?" the older shaman responded plainly.

Yoh fidgeted a while, contemplating whether to ask. He gave in to curiosity in the end. "Do you…still want to kill all the humans?" he asked it. The younger brunette hopes that it doesn't trigger something.

Hao was thoughtful for a while. "I'll admit that I'm not exactly fond of them," he started, and Yoh's face changed color. Hao quickly continued, "but the thought of killing them never crossed my mind. I can learn to block out their thoughts now, but that needs concentration, and I can't do it all the time, so when their thoughts pile in, it's kind of irritating. I assure you, though, that I won't kill them. You don't want me to kill anyone right?"

Yoh slowly nodded. "Then I won't kill anyone if I can help it." Hao said, satisfying his younger twin.

Another silence ensued before Yoh ventured another question. "Do you…wish that you could get your memory back?"

Hao didn't even think about this one. "I am content the way I am now." That is all Yoh needed. He smiled. "Well, if you want to survive in our house, then you should follow the rules." He said. Hao turned. In his one and a half years living there, he's never heard of the rules.

"And what would they be?" he asked his otouto.

Yoh held up one finger. "One, smile more," his brother did just that. "Not a problem."

Yoh held up his middle finger along with his already raised index finger. "Two, Anna-sama's words are law." He _smirked_ as he put his hand down. "Think you can do that?"

Hao laughed, a child-like laugh that rang clearly in the empty cemetery. "I can try." He stood up and held out a hand to his otouto. "Now if we don't get back in time for supper, we'll make Anna-_sama_ angry for making her wait."

Yoh smiled and accepted his onii-chan's hand. Then the two went off toward the inn as the stars rose into the sky with the moon, casting their gentle glows onto the peaceful city.

-Owari-

* * *

Mochirei – primary spirit. 

Nee-san/Onee-san – Older Sister

A/N: Well, that's that, and so the fic ends. HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!

I think the epilogue was done pretty bad. The story's ending didn't go as well as I wanted it to, and I don't know how to make it better so bare with me there. (Opacho came out of nowhere, I know)

Thanks for everyone who read up to this point. I really appreciated the supports and reviews.

**Final Reply for Reviews:**

Lost to Reality: Yay! Kawai ninjas! - huggles- Haha I complete sympathize with you on the writer's block thing. Too many times had I need to face it... Well, here's the last chapter!

Sora no Hoshi: (oh here's a long one) First of all, I will thank you for adding my review count by one. Second, I need to say this: YOU. ARE. LAME. Not only do you lack the originality to the point where you have to use my username, you also wrote in first person's point of view as if you wrote the story that you criticized, not I. If you think that I will stop writing this story just because you wrote such a lame flame, you better find another person, preferably yourself, to tick off. I mean, if you want to flame, fine, go ahead since I said I accept flames, but DON'T USE MY NAME, DAMMIT! If you even have half as many guts in flaming as I do in writing and posting this story, you will at least leave your e-mail address so I can have some private talk with you, and the conversation _will_ _be_ filled with VERY colorful vocabularies (even though I am not prone to cussing, even in writing). If I truly dislike my own story, I wouldn't be lame enough to flame it, but to take it down instead. In fact, if I do not like this story, I would not have written it at all, even less posting it. You are a jerk and you are very disrespectful to all who have tried hard in order to please others and themselves. If I ever find out who you are, I'll make sure to give you more than just this piece of my mind. Go entertain yourself somewhere else and leave me and the hell alone. (-whew- that felt good)

Runelesca: Here's the epilogue, and though it's not as good as I would want it to be, I don't know how to make it better and it's at least an offical ending. I hope you're satisfied with it.

Zero Factory: Thank you! I have to admit, the slapping part came out of absolutely nowheere XD.

l2uly: Well, I guess I'm also a sadist for writing so many deaths in like...ten chapters...ANYWAYS, I like the X-laws too, but I really don't like their philosophy and weird reasoning, so...there they go. Thanks for revewing all the way until the end. Much appreciated.

Too Lazy to Sign In / InsaneBlackHeart: GLOMP! Thanks for reviewing even though you're so dead. Much thanks for the reviews!!!!

Little-Anna-Chan: Haha there goes the X-laws...I didn't really kill them but you can just say that they landed in a pile of spikes after they ran away and got trapped in a barrel filled with cement and pushed into the ocean and drowned or something...hehehe. Anyways, thanks for revewing! I love all the reviews!

demonz8000: Thanks for reviewing anyways! Yes I know the X-laws popped out of absolutely nowhere but the chapter needed them so out they pop! Thanks again for the reviews!

Musically Gone: Yes, I believe in second chances. Of course, you cannot complete that chapter without letting SoF do some good slapping on the X-Laws angel. XD. Glad you liked it. Hope you enjoyed the epilogue as well!

Whoa, so many reviewers (in my opinion) this time! I'm so happy that everyone who did stayed with me this far! Much appreciations for all those who reviewed at all (even -cough- Sora no Hoshi...) I love you all.

Just an extra thing...I don't know why, but I'm very satirical of the X-Laws. Probably the idea of a girl living in an Iron Maiden and a follower wearing short-shorts for a comfortable battlesuit is just great inspiration for humor, or even parody. Don't get me wrong, I like Jeanne, but the X-Laws logic can sometimes be so...yeah.

Wow, I'm so happy that I got this far on my first fic. :cries: Thanks for the support everyone. Well, I hope that you all enjoyed it, and please REVIEW.


	13. What is Nanatoku Naru Sa?

Well, sorry, this is not really an update, since, ya know, the epilogue was already up and all. BUT, since I have been getting a lot of "What does _Nantoka naru sa_ mean?" in both reviews and PMs, I think it would be nice for me clarify this in a chapter, so that everyone can know, whether they want to or not! (hehehe) If you don't want to know, just leave. No one's forcing you to read, same for those that already know and think that this is an extraneous chapter. No reviews required, written purely for those that asked and those that wondered. So, with that...

What is Nantoka Naru sa?

**Nantoka**

somehow, anyhow, one way or another

**Naru**

1. to change, to be of use, to reach to

2. to sound, to ring, to resound, to echo, to roar

3. to become

**Sa**

1**. ****difference, variation**

2. **make**

3.**help**

Since I read the Chinese version of the manga, the phras "nantoka naru sa" had always been translated by Yoh as (literally) "the boat will naturally straighten when it reaches the bridge", or in another words, "everything will eventually work out on its own".

From what I can gather according to the Japnese definition I received (with my zero Japanese knowledge), I interpret it as "Something (a solution) will be reached somehow". All in all, it's just Yoh's laid-back attitude saying "don't worry about it, since the problem will work itself out."

With this one-page explanation (less than three hundred words), I hope this helps all the confusion now that it's been explained.

Note: After truly looking it up, I realized that I have used it wrong on several accounts throughout the story, the same with "Chicchai na" in comparison to my stupid "Chicchiena". I'm truly grateful to **Kia Ixari** for correcting my mistakes, and I'll try to refrain from using words that I'm not sure of from now on.


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